Okay, this is the kind of thing that I'm interested in.

I don't think you need to be running the whole Steem blockchain. You should be able to use the API to access the blockchain data without using a server at all. This is the kind of thing that I hope to be doing soon, but I haven't done it yet.

Here's a few posts by another Steem writer that may be helpful:

• Write a Steemit web app - part one
• Steemit web app - part two
• Steemit web app - part three
• Steemit web app - part four

These are written by @jfollas. I haven't gone all the way through them yet, but they should describe how you can access the API using a library and the write web apps to display the data. I'll be able to do this kind of programming soon, but I'm not quite there yet.

Hope that helps!