Patent ID: 8019743

Claim:
A method of presenting search results to a user of a social network site on the Internet, wherein each user of the social network site has a user profile with information regarding the user, the method comprising: obtaining, by a server hosting the social network site on the Internet, the user profile of each user of the social network site; obtaining, by the server, from web sites on the Internet other than the social network site, content items satisfying a search of information on the Internet by a first user of the social network site; ranking, by the server, the content items as a function of the information in the user profile of the first user and of the information in the user profiles of users who have user profiles similar to the user profile of the first user such that the content items which are related to the information in the user profile of the first user and which are related to the information in the user profiles of the users who have user profiles similar to the user profile of the first user are ranked higher than the content items which are unrelated to at least one of the information in the user profile of the first user and the information in the user profiles of the users who have user profiles similar to the user profile of the first user; and transferring from the server to a display of the first user via the Internet the content items according to the ranking such that higher ranked content items are displayed on the display prior to lower ranked content items being displayed on the display.