1. A method for searching a database that includes private social network data, comprising: providing one or more databases including a plurality of database entries, a first portion of the database entries including private social network data and a second portion including non-social network data that is publicly accessible on the World Wide Web; associating a plurality of permission rules with the first portion of database entries, the plurality of permission rules individually defining access rights to a respective subset of the private social network data; receiving a keyword search request from a search request user; receiving auntication data associated with the user, wherein the auntication data identifies access rights of the user to a subset of the private social network data according to at least one of the permission rules; searching the one or more databases or a keyword index thereof using one or more keywords received in the keyword search request and generating a search result comprising a plurality of search result items; determining a hierarchy for the search result items; displaying at least a portion of the search results items according to the hierarchy; and determining whether the user has access rights to a particular subset Of the private social network data and wherein if the user has access rights to particular subset of private social network data, using at least a portion of the particular subset of private social network data in the step of (i) searching the one or more databases, (ii) determining the hierarchy, and/or (iii) displaying the search result items.