Masked Queries for Search Accuracy in Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Systems

Peer-to-peer file-sharing systems suffer from the over-specification of query results due to the fact that queries are conjunctive and the descriptions of shared files are sparse. Ultimately, longer queries, which should yield more accurate results, actually do the opposite. The judicious masking of query terms circumvents the shortcomings of conjunctive query processing, significantly improving query accuracy.