ESPRESSO: A Framework to Empower Search on the Decentralized Web

Mohamed Ragab, Yury Savateev, Helen Oliver, Thanassis Tiropanis, Alexandra Poulovassilis, Adriane Chapman, George Roussos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The increasing centralization of the Web raises serious concerns regarding privacy, security, and user autonomy. In response, there has been a renewed interest in the development of secure personal information management systems and a movement towards decentralization. Decentralized personal online data stores (pods) represent a revolutionary example within this movement, built on the W3C’s existing guidelines – an approach exemplified by initiatives such as Solid (https://solidproject.org). In the Solid paradigm, individuals store their personal data in pods and have absolute discretion when choosing to grant access to different users and applications. A barrier to the adoption of the pod approach is the predominant reliance on centralized indexes for search functionality in current Web and Web-based systems. This paper introduces the ESPRESSO framework, which is designed to facilitate this new paradigm of large-scale searches within personal data stores while respecting the individual pod owners’ data access governance. The current ESPRESSO prototype integrates access control within pod indexes to enhance distributed keyword-based search. ESPRESSO’s unique contribution not only enhances search capabilities on the decentralized Web but also paves the way for future explorations in decentralized search technologies.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)431-448
Number of pages18
JournalData Science and Engineering
Volume9
Issue number4
Early online date26 Nov 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Solid framework
  • Linked data
  • Access control
  • Decentralized web
  • SPARQL
  • Distributed querying
  • Personal online data stores
  • RDF
  • Web search

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'ESPRESSO: A Framework to Empower Search on the Decentralized Web'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this