DISTRIBUTED RETRIEVAL SYSTEM, RETRIEVAL DEVICE FOR THE SAME, INFORMATION RETRIEVAL METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable loads on a system manager, a traffic and a server to be reduced and to enable a retriever to discover appropriate information resources in a system for retrieving the information resources possessed by a computer connected with a network. SOLUTION: A person who requests information retrieval adds cost information to retrieval request, and each retrieval device decides whether or not the retrieval request is transferred to other retrieval devices on the basis of the cost information attached to the retrieval request. Thus, a range of the computer retrieving the information resources on the network is decided in accordance with the cost information. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO