A system, comprising: a network search engine; a first compute node associated with a first personal content location, comprising a first search engine, a first indexer component and a serve component; and a second compute node associated with a second personal content location, comprising a second search engine, second indexer, and second serve component; wherein each of the first and second indexer components is configured to generate a content index of content of the content location associated with the respective compute node, said content index including access permissions with each index entry so as to determine which of the content is accessible, said access permissions indicating whether the index entry is associated with private or shared content, said access permissions defined by an owner of the content; wherein the network search engine is configured to direct a query received from an owner of the content of the first compute node via a program of the first content location to the first compute node; wherein the first compute node is configured to pass the query received from the network search engine to the second compute node that has at least some shared content with the owner of the content on the first compute node, and to receive results from the second compute node; and wherein the first search engine is configured to process a received query against the respective content index, and to obtain and return private content as well as shared content as results, and wherein the second search engine is configured to process a received query against the respective content index, and to obtain and return results from: only the at least some shared content if the received query is from a different content owner to the owner of the content on the second compute node; or private content as well as shared content if the query is from the owner of the content on the second compute node; wherein each search engine returns results to the first compute node for presentation to the owner of the content of the first compute node. a network search engine; a first compute node associated with a first personal content location, comprising a first search engine, a first indexer component and a serve component; and a second compute node associated with a second personal content location, comprising a second search engine, second indexer, and second serve component; wherein each of the first and second indexer components is configured to generate a content index of content of the content location associated with the respective compute node, said content index including access permissions with each index entry so as to determine which of the content is accessible, said access permissions indicating whether the index entry is associated with private or shared content, said access permissions defined by an owner of the content; wherein the network search engine is configured to direct a query received from an owner of the content of the first compute node via a program of the first content location to the first compute node; wherein the first compute node is configured to pass the query received from the network search engine to the second compute node that has at least some shared content with the owner of the content on the first compute node, and to receive results from the second compute node; and wherein the first search engine is configured to process a received query against the respective content index, and to obtain and return private content as well as shared content as results, and wherein the second search engine is configured to process a received query against the respective content index, and to obtain and return results from: only the at least some shared content if the received query is from a different content owner to the owner of the content on the second compute node; or private content as well as shared content if the query is from the owner of the content on the second compute node; only the at least some shared content if the received query is from a different content owner to the owner of the content on the second compute node; or private content as well as shared content if the query is from the owner of the content on the second compute node; wherein each search engine returns results to the first compute node for presentation to the owner of the content of the first compute node.