That would potentially make the internet faster, more efficient, and more capable of withstanding rapidly escalating levels of global user demand.

It would also make information delivery almost immune to server crashes, and significantly enhance the ability of users to control access to their private information online.

While this would lead to an even wider dispersal of online materials than we experience now, however, the researchers behind the project also argue that by focusing on information rather than the web addresses (URLs) where it is stored, digital content would become more secure.

They envisage that by making individual bits of data recognizable, that data could be "fingerprinted" to show that it comes from an authorized source.

Technically, online searches would stop looking for URLs (the Uniform Resource Locator) and start looking for URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), explained Dr Dirk Trossen, a senior researcher at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab, and the technical manager for Pursuit.

In simple terms, these would be highly specific identifiers which enable the system to work out what the information or content is.

This has the potential to revolutionise the way in which information is routed and forwarded online.

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