Abstract: A social network built around objects viewed over the Internet. A user interacts with a web page presenting a recognizable object (for example, a book, a restaurant or a stock quote). A plug-in in the user's browser extracts information from the web page, creates an identifier for the object, and records the interaction at a network node for the object and a network node for the user. The plug-in further creates a toolbar that is displayed with the web page, which identifies other viewers who recently viewed the object on the Internet and, in particular, other viewers who have been selected by the user as friends. The user may view a profile for any of the other viewers that provides links to the web page where the selected viewer viewed the object, to other objects viewed by that viewer and to other viewers linked to the viewer.