I think it would be great if it was possible to choose what formats to look for. But only for advanced users. Since applying choices like that would probably alienate newbies to P2P sharing.

but an advanced tab in the searchcatagory would be nice, not only for Mac-users but also for for example people that are tired of the albumwrap, and would like zip and rar files to show up while searching for music.

As for defining specific codecs used, I am affraid that the gnutella people would have to rewrite the way the files are hashed. I may be wrong here, as I do not have the insight of how hashes work really, but I am pretty sure I am on the right path.

Also I think that it's a terrible idea that people should encode files in a way that isn't the optimum codec (performance and size) just so they can play in iPods. I have tried recoding mp3 of good quality (192 kbps and above) into mp3Pro and do not notice any loss of quality at all. I do have good audio equipment to play it back, I would notice loss in quality. As for lower bitrates I'm not sure, since I don't bother to download anything that isn't worth listening to. Anything under 128 kbps doesn't deserve to be on the network. iTunes should instead make a plug-in for mp3Pro playback.

I much better idea I think regarding video formats is, if all people (newbies and experts alike, this includes programme manufacturers) would get into their thick skulls that DivX is the way to go. Even the Ahead people (Nero) are trying this Nero Digital format, which is the only real dissapointment in their new program, instead of buying the rights to include a DivX converter and developing it even further. By this I mean like the ImTOO ripper and the WinAVI video converter which are lossless with the right settings. They (Nero) at least got the mp3Pro converter, even though it is an add-on that they charge extra for . Don't think those programs support Mac-platform

Since Macs and iPods are so popular I am pretty sure that if software isn't allready out there that is able to do lossless conversion, it will be soon.

Windows users can do this, so why shouldn't Mac/iPod-users be able to as well.

If not. Then there is a unused opportunity to make lots and lots of $ for some programmer. hint hint !!! Should maybe get into programming instead of waisting my time in business school