10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise: code for determining the association scores between the one or more keywords and their friend keywords based at least in part upon positions of the one or more keywords and their friend keywords within a hierarchy of keywords derived from the master keyword list.
8. A computer-readable storage medium carrying computer-executable instructions configured to cause a data processing system to perform a method of searching a database having a plurality of information objects, the computer-executable instructions comprising: code for receiving from a client computer connected to the data processing system a first query with one or more keywords; code for determining that the one or more keywords are members of a predetermined master keyword list, wherein each member of the master keyword list has a relevance rating, wherein the relevance rating represents a degree of relevance between a keyword and an information object, wherein each of the one or more keywords is associated with at least a friend keyword in the master keyword list, wherein each keyword-friend pair in the master keyword list has an association score, wherein the association score represents a degree of association between a keyword and a friend keyword; code for retrieving friend keywords associated with the one or more keywords from a keyword-friend table stored in the database; code for automatically expanding the first query to a second query to include the one or more keywords and their friend keywords having association scores that meet or exceed a set value, wherein the second query includes at least one keyword that is not in the first query; code for searching the database using the second query; code for identifying from the plurality of information objects in the database a set of information objects that correspond to the one or more keywords and their friend keywords in the second query; and code for sending the set of information objects or a derivative thereof to the client computer.