1. A non-transitory information-storage device programmed with data and instructions comprising: a reference set of stored expressions distilled from biographies scored by a human expert, instructions for finding biographies stored on a network, instructions for reducing the biographies to distilled expressions, instructions for comparing the distilled expressions to the reference set to derive a qualification score, instructions for identifying biographies of candidates exhibiting a qualification selected by a searcher, instructions for collecting network-stored indications of published connections between the searcher and each of the candidates, instructions for extrapolating additional possible connections between the searcher and each of the candidates, instructions for synthesizing a referral path from the searcher to each candidate through intermediaries identified by the published connections or the additional possible connections instructions for computing a connectivity score for the referral path based on the relevance of intermediaries' biographies or intermediaries' connections to the qualification selected, and displaying the results ranked by at least one of the qualification score, the connectivity score, and the geographic proximity of the candidate to the searcher.