By Colette Sandstedt. Colette is the PR Manager for Searchme.

Erin made me the best stack ever the other day. I knew I liked Stacks, but I had no idea how much.

By Erin Pipkin. Erin is a member of the Search Quality team.

The Searchme staff is stackin’ it like crazy. We’re loving our new media search functions. Barbara is going to email her friends with a photo stack of all their cats; we‚re sharing sports and travel stacks on Facebook; we’ve all laughed and groaned about the employee photos stack (see last week’s post); and at any given moment, someone’s listening to a music video stack. A few days ago I heard Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” blaring from our CEO’s office, and I turned around to see a streaming black-and-white YouTube video of the young Bob Dylan illuminating Randy’s large flat-screen monitor, framed by the Searchme interface. Even from the vantage point of my desk, yards away, Dylan looked and sounded beautiful, talented and revolutionary.

Searchme’s sleek new interface, interestingly enough, provides a good frame for nostalgia. I haven’t had a chance to create a stack of family photos yet (mom’s going to love it!), but last night I spent hours image-searching the names of places I’ve lived in the past: Ann Arbor, Boston, Chapel Hill. Our Flickr-driven image search let me revisit each town through the eyes of fellow citizens. They’d done a great job of capturing the famous and obscure spots that make each of these towns feel like home.

Try it out! Run a Searchme search for your town, then press the “image” button in the top left corner to focus on image results only. And if the pictures bring certain music to mind (what were you listening to, last time you were there?) you can search for a band, then press the “video” button to see your favorite group in action. There’s some great archival footage out there. Whether it’s the Beatles, Bowie, or Britney, we’ve got something for you.

By Eric Yulo. Eric works in HR.

Here at Searchme, we happily drink our own cool-aid. Not only do we use our homegrown search engine for the usual stuff like vacation planning or work-related research, we also use it as a tool to visually present information to co-workers.

Our company leaders are big fans of Searchme as a presentation tool. Randy, our CEO created a stack of employees’ mugshots to help everyone get acquainted with each other. This is especially helpful in a growing company with 2 offices, and several employees working from other states and countries. Now people can focus on their jobs instead of constantly wondering what Colette in PR looks like.

Jennifer, our HR Director will use Searchme stacks (instead of the usual Powerpoint deck) as her visual aid for new hire orientation presentations. We all think it’s a great way to introduce new employees to the cool and elegant user experience we’re trying to impart to the world. She also hopes this will keep her audience awake, and forever get rid of that “what does a vacation request form look like” question.

On the recruiting front, our once-plain careers page will undergo a major facelift as we convert from HTML pages to Searchme stacks. This will allow candidates to search for the perfect job super-easily.

How are you using Searchme? I’d love to know!

Today we unveiled Searchme Stacks. If you haven’t read about them or watched the videos, Searchme Stacks help you find, organize and share stuff on the Web. Really easily.

Until now, finding and sharing things on the Web was really a pain. For example, let me tell you about one of my favorite bands, I’m From Barcelona, using the old skool approach:

Dear Searchme User:

Check out this cool band, I’m From Barcelona. Did I tell you they’re cool?

Home page: http://www.imfrombarcelona.com
Video-We’re From Barcelona: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwwbXHNGsjU
Lyrics: http://www.lyricsbox.com/im-from-barcelona-lyrics-6fm62.html
Cool Pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7321589@N07/851789876
Cool Pic 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66262945@N00/2458874585
Cool Pic 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/81801869@N00/1025087162
Treehouse (my fave): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KkhxrtC8lo
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_from_Barcelona

I hope you like them!

John

Yowza. First of all, it took me a fair amount of work to copy-paste to create that email for you. And, now you’ve got to click back-and-forth through the list until you’ve seen each page.

Compare that to how sharing pages works in Searchme Stacks:

Isn’t that cool? It’s just one of the many things made possible by visual search.

I love how easy it is to create stacks, and I love how easy it is to share them in email, in your blog, or on your Facebook or Myspace page. I can’t wait to see all the different kinds of stacks people will make!

Follow John Holland on twitter: “follow johnholland”

By Barbara Locke, Search Analyst

Thousands of San Francisco residents are getting free wireless Internet service through a company called Meraki. They provide free indoor and outdoor repeaters as well as the free service. People might already have access to their free Wi-Fi and not even know it. If in doubt, just look for “Free the Net” among the available wireless networks listed in your computer.

And if you can’t find it, visit the company’s web site and take a look at the map showing where the free Wi-Fi is available. They also have a great FAQ explaining how it all works and what their objectives are.

A good idea might be to sign up to receive a free receiver in the mail and depending on your location, you can volunteer to have an outdoor repeater and help to spread the “net.”

A co-worker here at Searchme lives in the Mission and uses it. She says the free service works pretty well. I already signed up and encourage all San Franciscans to do so. It’s fast and easy. The more people joining Free the Net, more coverage we’ll all have!

Happy Surfing!

I was really blown away when I found out that Searchme was one of Time Magazine’s 50 Best Web Sites of 2008. When I first loaded the page, I thought it was a mistake! But then it started to sink in, and I was totally blown away. You, see, I’ve been following Time’s Top 50 for years, and I have always found it to be a great place to find some really useful web sites. So, it’s incredibly flattering to find Searchme on the list.

The only way I can explain this surprise is by looking at the Searchme team. I’m amazed at how dedicated everyone is to the project, and only that dedication can explain an outcome like this. So, cheers to the Searchme Team.

Because I’ve been such a big fan of this list in past years, I wanted to call out a few of my faves from this year’s list.

Mint

Mint is a fantastic way to get a better handle on your finances in just 15 minutes. Just enter your online accounts into, and Mint aggregates all your financial information into one place. The coolest part is being able to compare your spending to others in your same region. (We’re about average for Trader Joe’s.)

Nymbler

We’ve got a baby on the way, and naming is becoming a very big deal as things “progress.” Nymbler to the rescue! You can enter in names you like, and Nymbler helps your zero-in on related names that match your moods and preferences. Can you say “Petunia Gladys”?

Picnik

Quick, easy photo-editing integrated with flickr. Need I say more?

Hulu

We got rid of our TV, and then Hulu come around. Lately I’ve been watching the Dick Van Dyke Show, but I’ve also enjoyed Alfred Hitchcock Hour, 30 Days, and educating my daughter about The A-Team. Not to mention The Daily Show!

TinyURL

I use it every day. Grab the bookmarklet!

Kiva

I’ve saved the best for last. If you would like to make a difference in someone’s life, you can lend money to entrepreneurs in developing nations. Even an amount that seems very small to us can make a significant impact and lift someone out of poverty.

These are my picks. How about yours? They can be from the list at Time, or just one of your favorite sites.

Follow John Holland on twitter! send this message to twitter: “follow johnholland”

This was one of the most requested features by far, so we added it as quickly as we could. Now you can flip through Searchme’s visual search results using your mouse wheel.

Keep those suggestions coming!

Do you want quick and easy access to Searchme? Well now you can add Searchme to your list of search providers in Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7. Once added, you will have instant access to Searchme results right from your toolbar. Here’s how:

1. While you’re on the Searchme site, click on the little glowing arrow next to the the search box in the top right corner of your browser.
2. Select “Add Searchme Beta” from the list.
3. Start Searching!

Now you can use Searchme from any page!

This feature was originally mentioned here, but we decided to re-post it separately in our ‘New Features’ category.

Our scroll bar is really fun: Slide it back and forth and watch the pages whiz by! But a lot of users asked for more precise control over the pages, so we decided to add an arrow to either end of the scroll bar:

You’ve always been able to go forward or backward by clicking on an individual page, but now these simple, clickable arrows make the results even easier to navigate.

This feature was originally mentioned here, but we decided to re-post it separately in our ‘New Features’ category.

Our #1 Feature Request – Tabbed Browsing

Lots of users wanted to open their chosen web site in a new window, without losing their search results, so we added it right away. Now you can keep your search results open while you visit other sites.

To turn this feature on, go to “Settings”, look for “Open links in:”, and click on “New window”. You can see it here:

NOTE: If your browser is set to open links in a new tab, then clicking on a link or right clicking and selecting ‘Open Link in New Window’ will open a new tab.