Patent ID: 7818392

Claim:
A method comprises: determining a first plurality of social network relationship factors associated with a first plurality of users with respect to a first user; determining a second plurality of users from the first plurality of users having associated social network relationship factors satisfying a filtering criteria, wherein a third plurality of users from the first plurality of users have associated social network relationship factors that do not satisfy the filtering criteria, wherein a first profile is provided for the first user and includes a first social distance between the first user and a second user, and wherein a second profile is provided for the first user and includes a second social distance between the first user and the second user, the first social distance and the second social distance being different, wherein the first social distance is reduced between the first and second users as a result of a weighting factor determined by a frequency of communications between the first and second users, a responsiveness by the first user in answering communications from the second user, a user satisfaction characteristic, and by a manual adjustment made directly to the weighting factor by the first user; determining a first plurality of hierarchal posts associated with the second plurality of users, wherein a second plurality of hierarchal posts are associated with the third plurality of users, wherein each of the posts are identified as having been submitted by an individual user, and wherein the first plurality of hierarchal posts are selected from a group consisting of: job posts, classified listing posts, and auction listings; and providing the first plurality of hierarchal posts to the first user, but not the second plurality of hierarchal posts, wherein the first plurality of hierarchical posts is provided in a directory including the first social distance.