An online social networking system can be used to rank social network objects of various different object types, each according to its type. The objects may comprise types such as users, communities, blogs, blog entries, events, forums, forum topics, postings, photographs, and/or images. The product comprises code for carrying out a method that begins with receiving ranking data about social network objects that comprises data about events performed on the social network. For each social network object, a ranking function is applied to ranking data about the social network object based on its type. In addition, the recency of an event on the social network related to the social network object is evaluated, in order to calculate the score for the social network object. A relative ranking for each of the plurality of social network objects based on its score is determined, and the score and relative ranking of each of the social network objects stored.