Search and retrieval of objects in a social networking system

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving text from a user;
• submitting the text as a query to a remote social networking system;
• and
• receiving, from the remote social networking system, a combined result set comprising objects matching the query, the combined result set comprising objects obtained from a plurality of search algorithms performed by the social networking system;
• wherein at least a plurality of the objects of the combined result set are ordered based at least in part on measures of affinities of the user for the objects, wherein an affinity of the user for an object comprises a physical distance between a geographic location associated with the user and a geographic location associated with the object.

A computer-readable storage medium having executable computer program instructions embodied therein, actions of the computer program instructions comprising:

• receiving a query associated with a user of a social networking system;
• performing a plurality of search algorithms using the query;
• obtaining a result set from each of the search algorithms, wherein each result set comprises a plurality of objects from an object store of the social networking system that match the query;
• aggregating the result sets from the search algorithms into a combined result set;
• ordering at least a plurality of the objects of the combined result set based at least in part on measures of affinities of the user for the objects, wherein an affinity of the user for an object comprises a physical distance between a geographic location associated with the user and a geographic location associated with the object;
• and
• providing at least a portion of the combined result set to a client device.