Patent ID: 8849786

Claim:
A method of presenting search results to a user of a social network site on the Internet, wherein users of the social network site each have a user profile with information regarding the user, wherein the user profile of each user includes information identifying other users of the social network site who the user trusts, the method comprising: obtaining, by a server hosting the social network site on the Internet, the user profiles of users of the social network site; obtaining, by the server, content items other than any of the user profiles satisfying a search of information on the Internet other than the social network site by a first user of the social network site, wherein the first user has a user profile with information regarding the first user including information identifying other users of the social network site who the first user trusts; ranking, by the server, the content items as a function of the information in the user profile of the first user and the information in the user profiles of users trusted by the users trusted by the first user such that the content items which are related to the information in the user profile of the first user and the information in the user profiles of users trusted by the users trusted by the first user are ranked higher than the content items which are unrelated to the information in the user profile of the first user and the information in the user profiles of the users trusted by the users trusted by 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.