FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions




Q: Why there are so few results yet?

A: We are still in beta. This is mainly intended to test and improve our distributed architecture. Due to the relatively small number of users during the beta test also the number of pages indexed is limited. By using a dedicated crawler we are now increasing the number of indexed documents to prevent a "chicken or egg problem".
So while trying FAROO you should rather judge the quality of the technology than the current quantity of the index.



Q: How is FAROO different from other P2P web search engines?

A: Speed, Scalability, Efficiency, Ranking and Simplicity.

FAROO is able to answer queries with multiple keywords very fast. This is very important because only 15 % are single keyword searches. The search response time and traffic are independent from the number of query terms. FAROO’s index structure eliminates the need of intersecting long posting lists for Boolean queries. Nevertheless also for a huge index size complete results are guaranteed.

FAROO scales unlimited:
  • Most other peer to peer search engines store all results for a specific keyword at a single peer.
    This architecture does not scale. One billion results for a frequent term do not fit on a single peer.
  • And a search with multiple search terms is infeasible due to the amount of data to be transferred. To guarantee complete results for two search terms with each 1 billion results at two separate peers the transfer of at least 10 GByte would be required, some naive implementations require even two times of that. Even compressed by factor 10, the transfer of 1 GByte for a single search is still infeasible.
  • So either those search engines are really slow or return absolute incomplete results despite of having a huge index.
FAROO has a more efficient index:
  • Index Efficiency = mean number of results / number of indexed pages.
  • All crawled Pages are almost instantly available for search.
  • There is no search horizon nor truncated result lists.
FAROO states the truly effective index size:
  • Every page is counted uniquely across all peers, without repeatedly counting pages which are crawled by several peers, pages which are not yet distributed, redundantly stored pages or pages indexed across several peers.
FAROO's attention based ranking leads to a more democratic, user centric ranking, while resistant against rank manipulation. For the first time the ranking of the web pages is automatically done by the target audience itself.

FAROO offers an easy installation, a clean user interface and a seamless browser and OS integration.



Q: FAROO reads my HTTP traffic in order to index visited pages. Does this hurt my privacy?

A: No. FAROO reads HTTP similar to a proxy, but opposite to a proxy data stay completely unchanged and there is no browser configuration necessary. FAROO indexes only pages which are located in the Internet, but no Intranet pages or HTTPS protected pages. Through FAROO no personal data leave the computer of the user.

But it is important to be aware of the fact, that there is no privacy while visiting internet pages. The ISP (according to the connection data retention law), many intermediate stations in the Internet, and the visited site itself knows about your visit.
In contrary, FAROO has no central institution, which would be able to collect the click streams. The (anyway public) web pages are yet hashed and encrypted at the computer of the user and then stored to the distributed index. The index contains only encrypted information. It does not contain any information about, who stored the information into this index.



Q: Why indexing visited pages does not work on my computer?

A: FAROO is using Raw Sockets in order to read and index the visited web pages. This approach is browser independent and prevents additional traffic for crawling. Unfortunately the support of RAW sockets is not consistently implemented within the different Windows version.

  • Windows XP SP1 and Vista are not supported (no monitoring of outgoing packets).
  • Windows 2000 only supported with admin rights or patch.
  • Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 supported, but not in connection with all wlan adaptors.


Q: How can I prevent that FAROO indexes my web site?

A: Because FAROO does not require a dedicated crawler, it is also not accessing files on your web server, so that there is no additional load for you. Anyway, as FAROO is a well behaving search engine, it respects the Robots Meta Tag according to www.robotstxt.org.



Q: Port 80 is already in use, why I can't change the port number?

A: FAROO contains an embedded web server. It has two functions: On one hand it provides the user interface and on the other hand the index is filled and search queries of other peers are answered. If port 80 is already in use, then FAROO is automaticaly looking for another free port. Searching is therefore still possible. But then FAROO is not anymore functioning as active peer, i.e. as active part of the distributed index.

This has been decided in this way, as many users may access the Internet via port 80 only due to firewalls. If a part of the active peers (using different ports) would be not accessible to those users, then the DHT principle would be hurt. This would evoke the risk, that the port-80-only-searchers would not receive the optimum results, in worst case no results at all.



Q: Why is FAROO's privacy protection much stronger than just not collecting log files?

A: Some search engines do not log search queries, others delete or anonymize them after a certain time or at users wish.
The security gain of these measures is almost virtually only. It does not help much if the search engine company abstains from collecting log files, but your ISP or system admin are monitoring your search. According to European law all connection data are collected and retained for at least six month.

By the following measures FAROO can provide superior privacy protection:
No search log
  • This is by architecture, not only by policy.
  • As FAROO has a completely distributed architecture, there does no central instance for monitoring exists. Therefore not collecting search logs is not just a promise, it's technically infeasible.
Encryption
  • Logging by ISP (connection data retention law) or system admin does not hurt your privacy as all queries are encrypted .
  • Your search queries are immune to blocking or filtering by ISP or system admin as all queries are encrypted.




Q: Does FAROOs anonymization and encryption endorse fraudulent use?

A: No. Responsible is solely the person who is publishing the content or consuming the content. FAROO not responsible for a possible misuse of its technology, as the developer of a web server, a browser, the HTTPS-protocol or the AES-encryption, or the manufacturer of a monitor, a hard disk or a memory chip is not responsible for storing, transferring or displaying illegal content by this systems.

Every technology can be used beneficial or abusive. To the same extent the judicial conception are varying in the different countries. Freedom of speech and privacy protection are guaranteed in many constitutions, in other countries they are accusable, in some they are guaranteed and accused at the same time.

FAROO is not publishing content to the Internet, makes it available or provides anonymous access to it. FAROO is solely helping the users, to assist each other locating of information which already exists in the Internet while maintaining privacy.



Q: Is FAROOs Attention Based Ranking vulnerable against manipulations?

A: FAROOs attention based Ranking is not so different from to Google' s Page Rank. While in Google webmasters are voting by linking to web pages, in FAROO users are voting by visiting webpages.

Therefore also the kind of ranking attacks and counter measures are similar. There are a lot of statistical measures by which a cheating peer could be identified. But of course, as with every anti-spam and anti-virus solution it's a continually ongoing fight. Therefore FAROO can instantly change the ranking algorithm and/or encryption by its auto-update feature, once it becomes compromised.



Q: How much load puts FAROO onto my computer?

A: FAROO is designed to not affect the performance of the computer.

It is only active, if no activity of the computer and no processor load is detected.
The hard disc storage to be donated can be specified in the options. If the hard disc space is becoming scarce, FAROO is automatically releasing the used hard disk space again.

In this way the full capacity of the user is solely available to the user, as soon as he needs it.



Q: Why you don't publish your product as Open Source and let everyone participate?

A: Well, everybody participates in ranking, crawling, serving results and in revenue sharing! For most of the users this kind of participation is probably more interesting than having access to source code. The source code is not public for two reasons:

First: Open Source is perfect when competing by a cost advantage with a commercial product on the same technological level (Linux, OpenOffice). But it's not a good idea to hand over your technological advantage to a monopoly, when competing with its free service with enormous brand power.

Second: We, like others, don't believe in big development teams if you are aiming radical changes.



Q: How democratizing the search and making money out of it go together?

Well, we think everybody needs to make some money for living, as long there is no open source housing, food, clothing and transportation ;-)
Isn't it better to make a living from an idea you believe in, than to waste your time in a boring job and dream in your spare time only?

FAROO does not only democratize the ranking, but also the commercial side of search. While today the biggest and fastest growing market in the internet is dominated by a single player, FAROO allows everybody to take part and profit from it.