New search engine promises faster, safer and more efficient content sharing
Imagine wanting to watch your favourite TV show online and being able to do it even if the server storing the content is down. Or picture searching for information on the Internet and not being subjected to adverts based on your previous searches. While users of current search engines are susceptible to server crashes and unsolicited advertisements, this won’t be the case soon thanks to a new search engine that will be launched in the first quarter of 2019. Drawing on the achievements of a concluded EU-funded project called PURSUIT, the block chain-based search engine Aarzoo is expected to transform the way content is shared online. Aarzoo eliminates the need to connect to servers and makes more efficient content sharing possible. Search results delivered by the Aarzoo Stealth engine will be “faithful to the query and completely unfazed and incorruptible by promoted or sponsored data,” said Aarzoo Search CEO and founder Vinod Sujan in a item posted on the ‘Moneycontrol’ business news website. To make this possible, the novel search engine won’t use paid search engine results pages placement to generate online sales for clients, drive traffic for client websites or generate leads. How does the system work? Based on the PURSUIT architecture, users can obtain information without directly accessing the servers where it’s initially stored. Instead, they can access data, or parts of it, from many different locations since individual computers are able to copy and republish content upon receipt. By decentralising searches, the block chain approach guarantees unbiased search results that are more secure and ensure privacy. This is because information isn’t stored on a central server. The Aarzoo search engine, Sujan explained, “is essentially scaling the peer-to-peer model, used by file-sharing applications, several levels up to an unprecedented, complex internet-wide level. The Stealth technology focuses on building a robust search infrastructure that would potentially make the internet faster, more efficient, and more capable of withstanding rapidly escalating levels of global user demand.” Focusing on what rather than who Under such a system, the information being exchanged becomes more important than the entities communicating it. In a news item posted on project partner University of Cambridge’s website, senior researcher Dr Dirk Trossen explained how today’s system differs from the PURSUIT concept: “The current internet architecture is based on the idea that one computer calls another, with packets of information moving between them, from end to end. As users, however, we aren’t interested in the storage location or connecting the endpoints. What we want is the stuff that lives there. “Our system focuses on the way in which society itself uses the internet to get hold of that content. It puts information first,” Dr Trossen added. “The only reason we care about web addresses and servers now is because the people who designed the network tell us that we need to. What we are really after is content and information.” Set to launch in the first quarter of 2019, the Aarzoo Stealth engine aims to democratise, distribute and decentralise the sourcing of data and information. PURSUIT (Publish Subscribe Internet Technology), the project that inspired it, concluded in 2013. For more information, please see: PURSUIT project website
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