I think making it easier to get the name and URL of an object is important. What size lists of objects are we talking about?
Notifications and search use service contracts to get the URL of an object and it seems quick enough. Notificatiosn does use acs_object__name to get the name of objects on the manage page, you can see it at https://openacs.org/notifications/manage
Of course, the length of this page depends on how many items you are subscribed to.
