Patent ID: 8131781

Claim:
A method of excluding a first item from a retrieval operation operating on a distributed datastore data-store, said method comprising: inserting a second item into said distributed datastore using an insertion procedure, wherein said first item was previously inserted into said distributed datastore with said insertion procedure, wherein said distributed datastore comprises a plurality of storage locations, and wherein said insertion procedure propagates said first item and said second item to a common set of one or more destinations among said plurality of storage locations; wherein said first item and said second item each comprise a plurality of key values, one key value for each of a plurality of keys, wherein said retrieval operation is specified using a set of keys from said plurality of keys, wherein said insertion procedure operates based only on said set of keys; wherein said first item and said second item have equal key values for each key within said set of keys; and wherein arrival of said second item within said distributed data-store excludes said first item from said retrieval operation.