Patent ID: 7680798

Claim:
A program storage device readable by computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform method steps for sharing objects in a network, the method steps comprising: a responding client node receiving a query for a query object initiated by a requesting client node in a network of client nodes; the responding client node automatically determining if an object, which resides on the responding client node, is similar to the query object; transferring one or more similar objects, if any, to the requesting client node by the responding client node; and the responding client node forwarding the query to another client node to search for an object similar to the query object, and wherein at least one of the responding client node and the another client node can automatically fine tune similarity algorithms the resounding client node and the another client node contain for changing a similarity threshold for determining the similarity between objects in the network, and wherein the similarity threshold can be different for each similarity algorithm of each of the client nodes or the similarity threshold can be an aggregate of one or more of these similarity algorithms used by the client nodes.