Abstract: A method for discovering a group defined by a common characteristic is disclosed. The method includes building representation of a portion of a social network based on a starting person with the given characteristic, the person also providing the person's gender and school affiliation. The social network representation is then searched to discover clusters therein meeting certain size and connectivity requirements with respect to the network. After the clusters in the network are discovered, clusters having a high degree of similarity are merged together. The resulting clusters, both merged and non-merged, are then scored to determine the cluster that best fits the original group. The winning cluster is then returned to the starting person who confirms the correctness of the cluster. The set of the persons in a confirmed cluster are then displayed to the starting person.