If you want to automate the collection of data then you want to look at something that can iterate through the links and strip out what you need. In the case of processing that's:

http://processing.org/reference/libraries/net/index.html

With:

http://processing.org/reference/String.html

Then you need a means of storing the data you're collecting. The two main choices are a text file or a database (or xml, as a sort of midway thing, though for complex data it's usually more hassle than it's worth in my experience). Which you choose depends on the complexity of the data and exactly what you want to do with it. A database gives you a language through which to manipulate the data, whereas with a text file you'll be doing it by hand.

If you give a bit more detail about what you're trying to achieve and what parts of thta you're stuck on, you should get more help.

Haha, I like the description.

Sounds vaguely like:

http://marumushi.com/apps/socialcircles/socialcircles.cfm

If you've really really got no scripting experience at all, then you'll need to take it step by step and build up.

I'd break it down like this. You need to learn 3 things:

1. getting data
2. manipulating data
3. drawing stuff to screen

You'll learn the foundation of 2 doing 1 and 3. So I'd pick either 1 or 3 and start playing.

As for databases/text files. You could call a text file a databse but in the context we're talking about them in they're different things. A text file would just be a list of values separated by a delimeter and spread across multiple lines.

like:

name1, valuex, valuey, valuez
name2, valuex, valuey, valuez

Then you have to read that in to whatever you're working in and parse it. So all the manipulation is manual.

If you use a database, you'll most likely manipulate the data through SQL (structured query language, I think). So you can do stuff like:

SELECT name WHERE valuex>valuey;

Which would return all the names whose valuex is greater than their valuey. So more is already done for you and it'll generally be more efficient and quicker.

If I were you I'd start off by having a play around with the net library in processing and seeing if you can connect to myspace. Then have a go at recursing through and pulling out what you're after.

Have a look at the HTTPClient example in processing (file>sketchbook>examples>httpclient). If that makes no sense at all then you need to do a bit of reading first. Read through the processing reference section up there ^ and google for 'object oriented programming'.