Leveraging affiliations to provide search results

A method of providing search results, the method comprising:

• using a processor to perform acts comprising:
• extracting, from a social service, sentiments that users of said social service direct to first entities on said social service;
• creating a map between said first entities on said social service and second entities to which said first entities correspond, said second entities being real entities;
• extracting sentiments of said users toward said first entities from comments and flags on said social service, to marshal a set of extracted sentiments;
• using said map to apply said extracted sentiments to said second entities;
• receiving, from a first user, a request for a product search, said first user being one of said users;
• generating results for said product search by using sentiments applied to said second entities to influence said results;
• and
• providing said results to said first user.

A system for providing search results, the system comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor;
• a sentiment extraction component that is stored in said memory, that executes on said processor, that receives a set of social service entities in a social service, that extracts from said social service, sentiments that users of said social service direct to real entities associated with said social service entities, that creates a map between said social service entities and said real entities, and that uses said map to apply sentiments of said users to said real entities;
• and
• a search engine component that is stored in said memory, that executes on said processor, that receives, from a first user, a request for a product search, that generates results for said product search by using sentiments applied to said real entities to influence said results, and that provides said results to said first user, said first user being one of said users.