Patent ID: 8190732

Claim:
A method of providing indicia of familiarity with service providers, comprising: processing a query for a service using a computer, wherein the query represents a solicitation for bids to perform the service; processing a plurality of bids received in response to the query using the computer, wherein the plurality of bids are from a plurality of service providers to perform the service; identifying at least one relationship between at least one service provider of a plurality of service providers and a user using a social network associated with the user using the computer; and generating information regarding the at least one relationship using the computer, wherein the information comprises a social distance between the user and each service provider of the at least one service provider where the social distance represents an indicia of real world familiarity between the user and each service provider of the at least one service provider, wherein the indicia of real world familiarity comprises an indicia computed based on a length of time in a relationship and an amount of time spent together; and providing the plurality of bids to the user along with the information regarding the social distance between the user and each service provider.