Integrating WWW caches and search engines

In this paper we propose the concept of cache plugins, which are customized programs that run WWW cache servers and perform some of the search engine tasks. We describe a prototype implementation of cache plugin to answer client requests directed to a large search engine, using a nearby cache server to store static objects. Experimental results using actual logs show a significant improvement on the quality of service of the search engine, doubling its predictability, improving its availability by a factor of 24, and reducing both its response time by 8% and the network traffic by a factor of 20.