Searchles Takes a Look Back on 2K8

Well it's been an interesting year for everyone. We all laughed, cried, met Sarah Palin, saw The Dark Knight, touched an iPhone... Here at Searchles we launched our Searchles Discovery widget on washingtonpost.com pages, helped a former Presidential candidate secure the Vice Presidency*, redesigned our homepage and made some key my!searchles upgrades to help users track conversations and get social recommendations. Yeah...pretty big stuff. Want to delve deeper into the awesomeness (and not awesomeness) of 2008? Check out and join the Looking Back on 2008 group on Searchles where our users are posting Best of, Worst of and other lists in general looking back on this year (Hey...remember '07?). Just another way you can utilize Searchles groups to organize and socialize what's out there on the web.

Here's a channel with the Top 10 Viral Videos of 2008 as chosen by TIME Magazine and Happy New Years to all!



* No...no, we can't actually prove this.

A Delicious Collection of Holiday Tweets

It's the most wonderful time of the year! And all over the web people everywhere are expressing their extreme joy and mild dismay at the impending holidays... Via twitter search, here are our favorite holiday tweets:

Bah Humbug dot com
from jconnor


What a Big Baton You Have
from dspark


Best (most depressing) Headline of the Season
from the huffpost


Christmas Irony
from andya


What Happens When You Twitter Search for "Christmas" and "suck it" (I thought it would be fun)
from ryersonben


A Fitting Warm-Up...
from stilletot21


"Clean" coal?
from lee eisenberg


And as always a Holiday Searchles TV Channel! This one comes from user Paisano sharing his favorite Christmas movies. Happy Holidays from Searchles!!

New My!Searchles Ramps Up Conversation and Keeps You Tuned-In To Your Network

We've given your my!searchles page -- your own personalized Searchles portal -- a makeover with a focus no longer just on relevant content, but also on connectivity to and conversation within your Searchles network of groups and friends. Your new my!searchles page keeps you more keyed-in to new relevant comments and also lets you stay on top of friend requests, group invites and new links your friends have shared with you. On the right panel of your my!searchles page we've added social recommendation boxes in the spirit of social discovery. Here we surface fellow Searchlers and relevant groups that you may be interested in based on our search technology and what we know about you from your activity.



This revamped version of my!Searchles with a focus on interactivity and participation within your Searchles network will make it effortless to jump into heated, comical or just plain interesting conversation in the center panel. We keep things super-relevant in your comment tracking by surfacing comments directed towards you, comments your friends are making, comments in your groups, comments on relevant posts, etc. to make sure if something up your alley is being discussed on Searchles - we put it in front of your face!

You can still easily jump and track your own Searchles index from the links on the left panel - your recent posts, your groups, your Searchles TV channels, your friends or your fans. You can also edit your profile, picture or alert settings right under your profile picture at the top left.

If you're a new user or haven't posted anything yet your first visit to your my!searchles page will prompt you to input a few keywords related to your interests (politics, green living, football, spelunking, etc.). We'll then jumpstart your recommendations based on these keywords and offer you some groups to join which will fill in your my!searchles with relevant conversations and content! It's THAT simple. So go check it out and we always appreciate feedback!

Top 100 US Newspaper Sites According to Alexa Rankings

Forget circulation, we're talkin' page views. Below are the Top 100 US Newspaper sites and their corresponding Alexa rankings. The following list is based on the traffic rankings as of Dec. 4, 2008, but note this list is subject to change slightly as Alexa continually updates its rankings. Also of interest is a list compiled by Jay Rosen and the Blue Plate Special team of the NYU School of Journalism of the best Blogging Newspapers in the US - if one would like to note how integration of social features and UGC on a newspaper sites corresponds to their rankings on this list.

1. New York Times -- nytimes.com -- 87
2. The Washington Post -- washingtonpost.com -- 283
3. Wall Street Journal -- online.wsj.com -- 356
4. Los Angeles Times -- latimes.com -- 374
5. USA Today -- usatoday.com -- 511
6. Boston Globe -- boston.com -- 578
7. San Francisco Chronicle -- sfgate.com -- 767
8. Financial Times -- ft.com -- 903
9. New York Post Online -- nypost.com -- 975
10. Chicago Tribune -- chicagotribune.com -- 987

11. New York Daily News -- nydailynews.com -- 1173
12. Seattle Times -- seattletimes.nwsource.com -- 1207
13. Houston Chronicle -- chron.com -- 1769
14. Associated Press -- ap.org -- 1951
15. Chicago Sun-Times -- suntimes.com -- 2075
16. San Jose Mercury News -- mercurynews.com -- 2326
17. Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- ajc.com -- 2439
18. Star Tribune -- startribune.com -- 2513
19. The Dallas Morning News -- dallasnews.com -- 2528
20. The Arizona Republic -- azcentral.com -- 2682

21. Toronto Star -- thestar.com -- 2687
22. Philadelphia Inquirer -- philly.com -- 2714
23. New Jersey Online -- nj.com -- 2758
24. Detroit Free Press -- freep.com -- 3044
25. The Miami Herald -- miamiherald.com -- 3256
26. The Flint Journal -- flintjournal.com -- 3405
27. Variety -- variety.com -- 3513
28. San Diego Union-Tribune -- signonsandiego.com -- 3527
29. The Examiner -- examiner.com -- 3678
30. Boston Herald -- bostonherald.com -- 3866

31. The Baltimore Sun -- baltimoresun.com -- 4001
32. Orange County Register -- ocregister.com -- 4196
33. Kansas City Star -- kansascity.com -- 4202
34. Orlando Sentinal -- orlandosentinel.com -- 4240
35. Sun-Sentinal -- sun-sentinel.com -- 4320
36. National Review -- nationalreview.com -- 4575
37. Detroit News -- detnews.com -- 4605
38. St. Louis Post Dispatch -- stltoday.com -- 5112
39. Milwaukee Journal Sentinal -- jsonline.com -- 5150
40. Cleveland.com -- cleveland.com -- 5242

41. The Washington Times -- washingtontimes.com -- 5442
42. The Denver Post -- denverpost.com -- 5490
43. Christian Science Monitor -- csmonitor.com -- 5635
44. Everything Alabama -- al.com -- 5801
45. Epoch Times -- en.epochtimes.com -- 6346
46. Nola.com -- nola.com -- 6754
47. Sacramento Bee -- sacbee.com -- 7073
48. Anchorage Daily News -- and.com -- 7447
49. Indianapolis Star -- indystar.com -- 8221
50. The Palm Beach Post -- palmbeachpost.com -- 8998

51. Deseret Morning News -- deseretnews.com -- 9096
52. The Salt Lake Tribune -- sltrib.com -- 9262
53. Village Voice -- villagevoice.com -- 9400
54. The Hartford Courant -- courant.com -- 9439
55. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review -- pittsburghlive.com -- 9715
56. New York Observer -- observer.com -- 10231
57. The News & Observer -- newsobserver.com -- 10585
58. Rocky Mountain News -- rockymountainnews.com -- 10793
59. Honolulu Advertiser -- honoluluadvertiser.com -- 10815
60. The Statesman -- statesman.com -- 11011

61. Syracuse.com -- syracuse.com -- 11194
62. Fort Worth Star-Telegram -- dfw.com -- 11894
63. The Oklahoman Online -- newsok.com -- 13196
64. Nashville Tennesean Online -- tennessean.com -- 13358
65. San Antonio Express-News -- mysanantonio.com -- 13802
66. Buffalo News -- buffalonews.com -- 13957
67. Daily News -- dailynews.com -- 15457
68. Times Union -- timesunion.com -- 16272
69. Des Moines Register -- desmoinesregister.com -- 16419
70. Knoxville News Sentinal -- knoxnews.com -- 17141

71. Honolulu Star Bulletin -- starbulletin.com -- 17207
72. Press Enterprise -- pe.com -- 17754
73. Daily Herald -- dailyherald.com -- 18561
74. Delaware Online -- delawareonline.com -- 18699
75. Florida Times-Union -- jacksonville.com -- 18961
76. Philly Burbs -- phillyburbs.com -- 19270
77. Las Vegas Sun -- lasvegassun.com -- 19520
78. Florida Today -- floridatoday.com -- 19549
79. Courier-Journal -- courier-journal.com -- 19553
80. The Hill -- hillnews.com -- 19587

81. Providence Journal-Bulletin -- projo.com -- 19666
82. The Gainesville Sun -- gatorsports.com -- 19796
83. Arizona Daily Star -- azstarnet.com -- 19940
84. Contra Costa Times -- contracostatimes.com -- 20298
85. Memphis Commercial Appeal -- commercialappeal.com -- 21110
86. The State -- thestate.com -- 21532
87. Omaha World-Herald -- omaha.com -- 21539
88. St. Petersburg Times Online -- sptimes.com -- 22198
89. The Akron Beacon Journal -- ohio.com -- 22647
90. Press Democrat -- pressdemocrat.com -- 22838

91. Democrat and Chronicle -- democratandchronicle.com -- 23109
92. The Record Online -- northjersey.com -- 23579
93. Tacoma News Tribune -- thenewstribune.com -- 24166
94. The Morning Call -- mcall.com -- 24240
95. Tallahassee Democrat -- tallahassee.com -- 25843
96. Worcester Telegram & Gazette -- telegram.com -- 26214
97. The Reno Gazette-Journal -- rgj.com -- 27200
98. Ventura County Star -- venturacountystar.com -- 27588
99. Sarasota Herald-Tribune -- heraldtribune.com -- 27839
100.The Pantagraph -- pantagraph.com -- 28983