I have been looking at the searches.dat file which stores the current search information including search terms and results. I notice that before each search term is a 16 byte string of hex, which I thought was a hash of some kind. But I notice that the same search term generates completely different strings of this 16 byte value. So either it is not a hash or if it is it is unique to the search.

Can anyone give me a hint of what this 16 byte string is?

You might want to ask that question in the developers section of the Shareaza forums. I's more likely you'll get a satisfying answer there.

http://shareaza.sourceforge.net/phpbb/index.php

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