Peer-to-peer trading platform

A method comprising:

• providing a network-based interaction environment including a plurality of peer-to-peer nodes being able to communicate directly with each other using a peer-to-peer protocol and a peer-to-peer client application, wherein a network connection between at least two peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes is shared by another data transfer session;
• maintaining persistent item information using a first peer-to-peer client application on at least one peer-to-peer node of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the persistent information being related to an item being offered in an e-commerce transaction by a first user of the first peer-to-peer client application, the persistent information related to the item being offered in an e-commerce transaction by the first user being stored on a plurality of other peer-to-peer nodes;
• authenticating the first user;
• and
• providing a search engine on any of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the search engine including a filter to exclude search results from peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes that are not on a buddy list, search results produced by the search engine being cached on the at least one peer-to-peer node of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the cached search results being accessible to other peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes that are on the buddy list, the cached search results being related to items being offered in an e-commerce transaction by a plurality of users, the search engine enabling a search of peer-to-peer nodes on a buddy list without using a central search server.

An article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable medium having machine executable instructions embedded thereon, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

• enable network communication among a plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the peer-to-peer nodes being able to communicate directly with each other using a peer-to-peer protocol and a peer-to-peer client application, wherein a network connection between at least two peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes is shared by another data transfer session;
• maintain persistent item information using a first peer-to-peer client application on at least one peer-to-peer node of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the persistent information being related to an item being offered in an e-commerce transaction by a first user of the first peer-to-peer client application, the persistent information related to the item being offered in an e-commerce transaction by the first user being stored on a plurality of other peer-to-peer nodes;
• authenticate the first user;
• and
• perform a search on any of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the search including a filter to exclude search results from peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes that are not on a buddy list, search results produced by the search engine being cached on the at least one peer-to-peer node of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the cached search results being accessible to other peer-to-peer nodes of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes that are on the buddy list, the cached search results being related to items being offered in an e-commerce transaction by a plurality of users, the search enabling a search of peer-to-peer nodes on a buddy list without using a central search server.