Patent ID: 7707172

Claim:
An apparatus including a server configured to establish and update relationships between members registered to a human relationships registering system, the apparatus comprising: a database configured to store personal attribute information of the members, the personal attribute information including an identification code, a name, and relationship coefficients indicating respective degrees of relationship between the members; a message communicator configured to communicate a message from a first member to a second member and configured to communicate a response to the message from the second member to the first member, the response establishing a relationship between the first member and the second member; a database update unit configured to update, when the relationship is established between the first member and the second member, the relationship coefficients indicating respective degrees of relationship between (i) the first member and the second member, (ii) the first member and the members having relationships with the second member, and (iii) the second member and the members having relationships with the first member; and a data retriever configured to communicate an identity of target members having personal attribute information satisfying one or more key words of a search criterion, the one or more key words including at least a target relationship coefficient indicating the degree of relationship between the identified target members and a particular member.