Patent ID: 8543610

Claim:
An apparatus including a server coupled to a communication network configured to establish and update relationships between members registered to a relationships registering system coupled to the communication network, the apparatus comprising: a database configured to store personal attribute information of the members and relationship degree data indicating respective relationship degrees between at least some of the members; a message communicator of the server configured to communicate via the communication network a relationship request to each of one or more second members indicating that a first member wishes to establish a direct relationship with the one or more second members; a data retriever of the server configured to search the database, in response to receiving from the first member one or more key words of a search criteria including a specified relationship degree and the personal attribute information of a specified member, specifically for one or more third members that are related to the specified member within the specified relationship degree, the specified member being any member other than the first member who is registered to the relationships registering system; and a data sender of the server configured to communicate to the first member at least a portion of the personal attribute information of at least a subset of the one or more third members.