25. The system of claim 20 , wherein communicating with the member network engine to identify the particular members in the member network comprises: comparing profiles of other members of the member network with the local search query submitted by the query-submitting member; and determining that the particular members that have profiles related to the local search query.
20. A system comprising: a member network server implemented by one or more computer processors, the member network server comprising: a member network database stored in machine-readable memory, the member network database storing profiles that represent members in a member network, the profiles comprising endorsements of electronic documents including web pages; and a member network engine programmed to allow users to interact with and participate in the member network, including by classifying particular electronic documents as user endorsed electronic documents by inputting a favorable rating on a control that is displayed simultaneously with an identifier for a corresponding electronic document; and a search engine server implemented by one or more computer processors, the search engine server comprising: an article index stored in machine-readable memory, the article index indexing electronic documents stored at other devices or systems; and a search engine programmed to respond to receipt of a local query signal that embodies a local search query for a particular geographic locality made by a query-submitting member of the member network, by performing operations comprising: performing a search of the article index to locate local information responsive to the local search query and for the particular geographic locality in the electronic documents indexed by the article index, and returning identifiers of the electronic documents in a first local search result set; communicating with the member network engine to identify particular members in the member network who have provided endorsements; accessing the member profiles of the particular members to identify the endorsements in the member profiles of the particular members and returning the identified endorsements in a second local search result set; merging the first local search result set and the second local search result set to form a final local search result set, wherein a ranking of the identifiers for the electronic documents in the final local search result set differs from a ranking of the identifiers for the electronic documents in the first local search result set and a ranking of the identifiers for the electronic documents in the second local search result set; and providing the final local search result set for presentation to the query-submitting member of the member network, wherein the presentation identifies, for particular ones of the final local search result set, the particular members in the member network identified as having provided endorsements for electronic documents that correspond to the particular ones of the final local search result set.