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BitTorrent
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=== Searching === The BitTorrent protocol provides no way to index torrent files. As a result, a comparatively small number of websites have hosted a large majority of torrents, many linking to copyrighted works without the authorization of copyright holders, rendering those sites especially vulnerable to lawsuits.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://torrentfreak.com/publicbt-tracker-set-to-patch-bittorrents-achilles-heel-090712/| title=PublicBT Tracker Set To Patch BitTorrent' Achilles' Heel| date=12 July 2009| publisher=Torrentfreak |author=Ernesto |access-date=14 July 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140326093356/http://torrentfreak.com/publicbt-tracker-set-to-patch-bittorrents-achilles-heel-090712/ | archive-date = 26 March 2014| url-status=live}}</ref> A BitTorrent index is a "list of [[Torrent file|.torrent files]], which typically includes descriptions" and information about the torrent's content.<ref>Chwan-Hwa (John) Wu, J. David Irwin. ''Introduction to Computer Networks and Cybersecurity''. Chapter 5.4.: Partially Centralized Architectures. [[CRC Press]]. 4 February 2013. {{ISBN|9781466572133}}</ref> Several types of websites support the discovery and distribution of data on the BitTorrent network. Public torrent-hosting sites such as [[The Pirate Bay]] allow users to search and download from their collection of torrent files. Users can typically also upload torrent files for content they wish to distribute. Often, these sites also run [[BitTorrent tracker]]s for their hosted torrent files, but these two functions are not mutually dependent: a torrent file could be hosted on one site and tracked by another unrelated site. Private host/tracker sites operate like public ones except that they may restrict access to registered users and may also keep track of the amount of data each user uploads and downloads, in an attempt to reduce "[[leech (computing)|leeching]]". [[Web search engine]]s allow the discovery of torrent files that are hosted and tracked on other sites; examples include The Pirate Bay and [[BTDigg]]. These sites allow the user to ask for content meeting specific criteria (such as containing a given word or phrase) and retrieve a list of links to torrent files matching those criteria. This list can often be sorted with respect to several criteria, relevance (seeders to leechers ratio) being one of the most popular and useful (due to the way the protocol behaves, the download bandwidth achievable is very sensitive to this value). [[Metasearch engine]]s allow one to search several BitTorrent indices and search engines at once. The [[Tribler]] BitTorrent client was among the first to incorporate built-in search capabilities. With Tribler, users can find .torrent files held by random peers and taste buddies.<ref>Zeilemaker, N., CapotΔ, M., Bakker, A., & Pouwelse, J. (2011). "Tribler P2P Media Search and Sharing." Proceedings of the 19th ACM International Conference on Multimedia - MM β11.</ref> It adds such an ability to the BitTorrent protocol using a [[gossip protocol]], somewhat similar to the [[eXeem]] network which was shut down in 2005. The software includes the ability to recommend content as well. After a dozen downloads, the Tribler software can roughly estimate the download taste of the user, and recommend additional content.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tribler.org/DecentralizedRecommendation |title=DecentralizedRecommendation β |publisher=Tribler.org |access-date=9 July 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081202143338/http://www.tribler.org/DecentralizedRecommendation | archive-date = 2 December 2008| url-status=live}}</ref> In May 2007, researchers at [[Cornell University]] published a paper proposing a new approach to searching a peer-to-peer network for inexact strings,<ref> {{cite web|url=https://www.cs.cornell.edu/people/egs/papers/hyperspaces.pdf|title=Hyperspaces for Object Clustering and Approximate Matching in Peer-to-Peer Overlays|author=Wong, Bernard|author2=Vigfusson, Ymir|date=2 May 2007<!-- from PDF-->|publisher=Cornell University|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617065142/http://www.cs.cornell.edu/People/egs/papers/hyperspaces.pdf|archive-date=17 June 2012|access-date=7 April 2013|author3=Gun Sirer, Emin|df=dmy-all}} </ref> which could replace the functionality of a central indexing site. A year later, the same team implemented the system as a plugin for [[Vuze]] called Cubit<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~bwong/cubit/index.html |author=Wong, Bernard |title=Cubit: Approximate Matching for Peer-to-Peer Overlays |year=2008 |access-date=26 May 2008 |publisher=Cornell University | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121231060445/http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~bwong/cubit/index.html |archive-date = 31 December 2012| url-status=live}}</ref> and published a follow-up paper reporting its success.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~bwong/cubit/tr-cubit.pdf |title=Approximate Matching for Peer-to-Peer Overlays with Cubit |author=Wong, Bernard |access-date=26 May 2008 |publisher=Cornell University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029084030/http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~bwong/cubit/tr-cubit.pdf |archive-date=29 October 2008 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}</ref> A somewhat similar facility but with a slightly different approach is provided by the [[BitComet]] client through its "Torrent Exchange"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wiki.bitcomet.com/Torrent_Exchange |title=Torrent Exchange | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131005065144/http://wiki.bitcomet.com/Torrent_Exchange | archive-date = 5 October 2013| url-status=live |quote=The torrent sharing feature of BitComet. Bitcomet.com. |access-date=31 January 2010}}</ref> feature. Whenever two peers using BitComet (with Torrent Exchange enabled) connect to each other they exchange lists of all the torrents (name and info-hash) they have in the Torrent Share storage (torrent files which were previously downloaded and for which the user chose to enable sharing by Torrent Exchange). Thus each client builds up a list of all the torrents shared by the peers it connected to in the current session (or it can even maintain the list between sessions if instructed). At any time the user can search into that Torrent Collection list for a certain torrent and sort the list by categories. When the user chooses to download a torrent from that list, the .torrent file is automatically searched for (by info-hash value) in the [[Distributed hash table|DHT Network]] and when found it is downloaded by the querying client which can subsequently create and initiate a downloading task.
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