Search based on degree of separation

[Oggle]

I have an application that lets users search based on degree of separation, so for instance, a user can search for age, hobbies, etc. and limit the search to just users who are 1 degree separate, 2 degrees separate, or 3 degrees separate.

However as it stands now, searches are taking a long long time because according to the programmer, the degree of separation is calculated dynamically upon search, and with a system of about 50,000 users this is taking way over one minute to execute, causing timeouts in the browser.

Is there a better way to go about doing this type of search? Perhaps using a scheduler to perform some calculations beforehand so the searches can use it? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

[r937]

did your programmer happen to declare any indexes on the tables involved?