10. A system including processor and memory for a thorough search of a distributed document database, comprising: means for receiving a search request including search parameters and a search starting point; means for adding a document found at the search starting point to a processing list; means for determining whether a next document in the processing list is a plain text document or a compressed document; means responsive to finding that the next document is a compressed document for decompressing the next document to produce a plain text version of the next document; means for searching the plain text version of the next document according to the search parameters and for references to other documents; means for appending documents referenced by the next document to the processing list; means for returning a list of processed documents which meet the search criteria to a user; and means for determining that inspection of the processing list is concluded.
10. A system including processor and memory for a thorough search of a distributed document database, comprising: means for receiving a search request including search parameters and a search starting point; means for adding a document found at the search starting point to a processing list; means for determining whether a next document in the processing list is a plain text document or a compressed document; means responsive to finding that the next document is a compressed document for decompressing the next document to produce a plain text version of the next document; means for searching the plain text version of the next document according to the search parameters and for references to other documents; means for appending documents referenced by the next document to the processing list; means for returning a list of processed documents which meet the search criteria to a user; and means for determining that inspection of the processing list is concluded. 13. The system as recited in claim 10 wherein inspection of the processing list is concluded according to a time factor.