Our Favorite Make-You-Think and Feel-Good Posts of the Week

Sometimes when we least expect it a post or channel pops up on Searchles that gives us a much-needed pause. Thanks to those who submitted these - and please keep them coming!

George: Free Hug Campaigns Worldwide - All you need is love, right? Those more generous with outstretched arms than most attempt to brighten others' days.



Hamideh: Can Your Film Change the World? Pangea Day - May 10, 2008: A Global Film Event Harnessing the Power of Film to Inspire and Compel Social Change



maybelline: Global Storytellers for Pangea Day - Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Forrest Whitaker and many others explain what Pangea Day means to them and well...everyone. They may just be celebrities but they're speaking from the heart.



Stefanie: Bloggers Unite for Human Rights - May 15, 2008: challenges bloggers everywhere to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues on May 15. Topics including the wrongful imprisonment of journalists covering assemblies, governments that ignore the plight of citizens, and censorship of the internet. Citizen journalism counts!

Brian: Global Warming Cartoon Challenge - a series of eco-animations that spell out the issues of climate change we're facing.

Searchles Updates: Spankin' New Invite Feature and More for Your mySearchles Page!

Few things to report here from Searchles HQ! For one you'll notice a new link to invite your friends to join Searchles at the top of the homepage. Our invite feature now gives you not only the option to invite people by email, but also lets you import your contact list from gmail, yahoo, or hotmail to make it mighty easy to send invites to all your friends at once! Once your friends register, they're automatically added as your friends on Searchles too so you can track what they're posting and expand your network of trusted Searchles users - this way the interesting posts come to you!

We've also updated your personalized my!Searchles page to include both the Searchles Live activity feed - tracking in real time the posting, commenting, and ratings of your Searchles network - and also a display of your most recent posts for quick tracking and reference.

Are there site enhancements you'd really like to see on Searchles? Please, tell us about it by emailing info@searchles.com. Your opinion counts and we're constantly trying to update and make Searchles better than the average bear! And we hope you'll give our new invite feature a go because the real value in social search comes from your content and network of trusted users and groups.

Searchle on, Wayne. Searchle on, Garth.

The DC Tech Scene Alive, Kicking, and Growing! at Tech cocktail DC 2

Last night in our great nation's capitol, Tech cocktail's Frank Gruber and Eric Olson hosted Tech cocktail DC 2 at MXMCMXMCMXIXIIXICXICMXMCXIXICXICICVVVVVVVVVVV (read: 1223, for those who don't want to suffer through roman numerals on a Friday morning) and it was a great success! There were over 400 attendees and many of those from interesting new local tech startups looking to spread word, to collaborate with local companies, and to find free cocktails! - the DC tech scene is even more alive and well than we thought.

Since four of us from the searchles crew were able to attend - myself, caveman, dumbfounder, and tuddman - we attempted to chat up a hundred people each to fully cover the crowd. We came across an interesting new web app for Twitter from Summize. It's a service that indexes Twitter's public timeline in realtime - threading together associated tweets. We did a search on Summize for Tech cocktail DC 2 this morning and were able to get the quick rundown on what everyone thought of the event! Very cool search app - I could see the wheels turning in that head of dumbfounder's at the mention of such a service. We were also able to get a few other attendees and companies thinking about search as they grow and build out their platforms. After all, community is great but being able to easily find the people and content YOU're looking for is pretty important and hey...that's what we're here for.

If you're interested in attending local tech events in DC I'd recommend you keep tabs on DCtechevents.com for an updated calender. They're happening all the time and these events are a great resource and a great time!

Poking Fun at Web 2.0 Naming Conventions: Pot Calling Kettle Black

Everybody wants a slice of cool-web-name pie these days. Web 2.0 sites really want to go out of there way to make sure it is immediate clear they are 2.0 - dammit! Losing letters, word combos, abandoning the tried and true dot com... - one could have a field day (ooorr a headache) with the Techcrunch Company Index.

The Try-Hards

E's...Who Needs 'Em? - it's a dog-eat-dog world out there and we don't have time for E's...or yogurt even! That's why we have Go-gurt.

Case and point: Bookr, Buzzd, Flagr, Flickr, Jangl, LiveCastr, Socializr, Yappd

The Double Letters - no, no, no...there's two O's in Goose, boys; it's edgy, catchy, twice the letters...twice the fun.

Not to name any names but... Reddit, Digg, Kwiqq, Pligg

Give me an X - "X"...unknown, mysterious, incites thoughts of pirate treasure...talkin' bout my generation.

Blinkx, Fixya, Flixster, Flux, Kosmix, Loladex

.com...out like the fat kid in dodgeball - these guys are masters of their alternative domains.

last.fm, del.icio.us, fav.or.it, ping.fm, social.im, fantasti.cc

The Try-Harders

Waxxi, Mixx - two letters, two X's...oh snap.
Tripr.tv - the 'E' AND the .com are outta there.

The Try-Hardest

I'm not gonna link it...but there's a site called nipplebyte. Sure it's porn-y, and a quick trip to nipplebyte confirmed all of my suspicions on that front. I'm still going to give them try-hardest distinction because it really captures the essence of the traditional/new age-y combo...plus Techcrunch apparently covered it. Cheers.