1. A method for supporting a peer-based communications service that has peer members at clients that communicate with each other over a network about topics, wherein the peer members and topics are represented by objects that have properties, comprising: maintaining information on links between the objects and the properties of the objects as links table rows, wherein each links table row contains a privacy setting, a linking association between two respective objects, and corresponding descriptive attributes, wherein each links table row's linking association includes at least two object identifiers identifying a first object at which a link begins and second object at which a link terminates, and wherein each links table row's descriptive attributes include attributes representing the relationship between the first object and the second object; searching the information using a distributed database search, wherein: the searching propagates from a client of an originating peer member to a second client of a second peer member; the originating peer member and the second peer member are within a peer network; and as the links table associated with the second peer member is searched, search results are returned to the originating peer member; and using the privacy settings to determine whether the originating peer member can display a link between objects.
1. A method for supporting a peer-based communications service that has peer members at clients that communicate with each other over a network about topics, wherein the peer members and topics are represented by objects that have properties, comprising: maintaining information on links between the objects and the properties of the objects as links table rows, wherein each links table row contains a privacy setting, a linking association between two respective objects, and corresponding descriptive attributes, wherein each links table row's linking association includes at least two object identifiers identifying a first object at which a link begins and second object at which a link terminates, and wherein each links table row's descriptive attributes include attributes representing the relationship between the first object and the second object; searching the information using a distributed database search, wherein: the searching propagates from a client of an originating peer member to a second client of a second peer member; the originating peer member and the second peer member are within a peer network; and as the links table associated with the second peer member is searched, search results are returned to the originating peer member; and using the privacy settings to determine whether the originating peer member can display a link between objects. 2. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising: using the privacy settings to determine whether the given-originating peer member can view the property of a given object using originating peer member's client.