Patent ID: 8688691

Claim:
A system for providing ordered search results from a search of a network, the system comprising: a server including a search engine module, wherein the search engine module is configured with logic to: retrieve items from the network satisfying search criteria provided by a user and rank the retrieved items in an initial ranked order based upon the search criteria; determine computer-related activities associated with the user, wherein the computer-related activities comprise social networking activities; rank the retrieved items based on the computer-related activities, wherein the ranking of the retrieved items is dependent upon whether any retrieved item has been referenced by the social networking activities, and the ranking the retrieved items based on the computer-related activities further includes: determining one or more relevance factors for each retrieved item referenced by the social networking activities, wherein each relevance factor for a retrieved item is based upon a corresponding reference of that retrieved item by the social networking activities; and modifying the initial ranked order of the retrieved items by applying the one or more relevance factors of each corresponding retrieved item to the initial ranked order of that corresponding retrieved item to produce a modified ranking; and provide the search results including the retrieved items in order of the modified ranking.