9. A method comprising: receiving a search query from a user; retrieving a plurality of citations, wherein content from each of the plurality of citations matches the search query and the plurality of citations cites a plurality of objects; generating a subject list that includes a plurality of subjects, wherein each of the plurality of subjects are connected to the user either directly or indirectly in an influence network of a user and each subject is a representation of a different user in the influence network; calculating an influence score for each of the plurality of subjects based at least on a distance on a path from the user to that subject in the influence network and each subject is a representation of a different user in the influence network; ranking the plurality of objects using a bias filter that includes ranking function based on at least the influence scores of the subjects of each matching citation, wherein the influence scores are obtained from the user's subject list for those citing subjects that are on the list; and selecting a subset of objects from the ranked plurality of objects as the search results for presentation to the user.
14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising: assigning a low score to the citation during ranking if a subject of a matching citation does not appear on the user's subject list.