Patent ID: 7444387

Claim:
A method, implemented in a computer that is one of a plurality of computers in a network, the method comprising: grouping the plurality of computers into a plurality of groups, wherein the grouping is based at least in part on the number of the plurality of computers in the network of which the computer is aware; selecting a portion of object information corresponding to an object, wherein the portion of object information comprises a set of least significant bits of the object information and a number of bits in the set of least significant bits is based at least in part on the number of other computers in the network of which the computer is aware; and identifying to which of the plurality of computers to communicate the object information for identification of potentially identical objects stored on the plurality of computers, wherein the identifying is based at least in part on comparing at a bit level the selected portion of the object information to a portion of a computer identifier of one or more of the plurality of computers such that the bits in the portion of the computer identifier are compared to the bits in the selected portion of the object information.