1. A method for performing an Internet search launched from an instant messaging (IM) application, the method comprising: providing a first IM user with an option to launch an Internet search of a second IM user directly from the IM application; transmitting a search query identifying the second IM user to a search server; searching the Internet for web pages matching the search query to generate search results using the search server; accessing a user profile of the second IM user from an IM member profile database; sorting the search results in order of relevance to information in the user profile of the second IM user; and displaying the sorted search results to the first IM user.