1Matthias Bender

Why P2P Sucks…

Matthias Bender

D5 – Databases and Information SystemsMax-Planck-Institut für Informatik

CIDR 2007Asilomar, CA

2Matthias Bender

Why P2P Sucks…… at least a bit

Matthias Bender

D5 – Databases and Information SystemsMax-Planck-Institut für Informatik

CIDR 2007Asilomar, CA

Why P2P Sucks... at least a bit 3Matthias Bender

Where is P2P?

P2P has been around for years

(Generations of) Researchers have worked on

P2P…

… and tackled some problems we wouldn‘t have had without them

…

P2P matured and ready-to-use?!?

.

Why P2P Sucks... at least a bit 4Matthias Bender

Where is P2P?

P2P has been around for years

(Generations of) Researchers have worked on P2P…

… and tackled some problems we wouldn‘t have had without them …

P2P matured and ready-to-use?!?

But: Somehow P2P not catching on in the „real“

world

Perception still dominated by early file-sharing systems, e.g.

Napster…

… which isn‘t even a P2P system after all…

… and has gained negative reputation

… due to legal issues (P2P = Pirate-to-Pirate)

Why P2P Sucks... at least a bit 5Matthias Bender

The Quest for the „Killer Application“

P2P Sales Pitch – No central entity, privacy,

anonymity, …

Service Providers: not really intriguing as a business model

If nobody „offers“ it, people need to run it themselves…

P2P Showcase: Web Search

Users: Google is doing a pretty good job…

Why P2P Sucks... at least a bit 6Matthias Bender

The Quest for the „Killer Application“

P2P Sales Pitch – No central entity, privacy, anonymity, …

Service Providers: not really intriguing as a business model

If nobody „offers“ it, people need to run it themselves…

P2P Showcase: Web Search

Users: Google is doing a pretty good job

(not only because they are sponsoring this conference…)

Missing incentive to use P2P Web Search!

Incentives and Business Model: Two sides of the same coin

Business Model is Incentive for Service Providers

Why P2P Sucks... at least a bit 7Matthias Bender

So why did file-sharing catch on?

Napster / Gnutella / Kazaa caught on because

users couldn‘t access data otherwise (at least not

for free)

Why P2P Sucks... at least a bit 8Matthias Bender

So why did file-sharing catch on?

Napster / Gnutella / Kazaa caught on because

users couldn‘t access data otherwise (at least not

for free)

Napster / Gnutella / Kazaa didn‘t last because

users couldn‘t access data otherwise (at least not

for free)

Music Industry doesn‘t like it…

Insight: Web Data is freely available – no user

incentive?!?

Why P2P Sucks... at least a bit 9Matthias Bender

So what does it mean for P2P (Search)?

P2P Killer Application requires incentives

Possible User Incentive: Improved Web Search

Experience

„Social Search“ on Intellectual Input of User Community

… that users wouldn‘t be willing to provide for commercial purposes

Wikipedia

Possible Service Provider Incentive:

non-free original data

Business Peers run network in order to sell their data…

… they would be willing to give out for indexing otherwise