Sometimes we get so busy cooking up new stuff here at SquidHQ that we wind up with a backlog of cool features to tell you about. So consider this a post to officially get stuff that has been flying under the radar, ON your radar. It’s worth it.

First, you saw the new lensmaster bio page launch yesterday. Here are just a few of my favorite examples.

Next up is the sweet new Lijit module. “Unify your content and make it searchable” is the catch phrase from the Lijit team, and that’s a pretty cool way to put your stake in the ground online. Basically, it makes it easy for you to make one big list of all the places you save or create content, like Flickr and Squidoo and Facebook and Delicious and your blogs, then roll that list up into a you-specific search. (Hint: Yep, it will roll all your lenses in there too). Then when readers stop by your lens, they can search all your content on the web with just one click. Told you it was sweet. Check it out in action on Corey’s lens. Then go try it on your own.

Finally, we also released a Feedmysearch module. Works like the older Google Blog Search module, but better. You just type in a keyword, choose whether you want to show news, blogs, web or local results, and bang… live, fresh news and posts right on your lens.

Oh, and after a few weeks of ironing out the wrinkles, the Lens of the Day blog is back and hot to trot. Have you been picked yet?

And that’s all she wrote. For now. Lots more soon.

Giant Squid Organizers and Giant Greeters are always on the lookout for potential Giant Squids, and they’re usually the first to discover hidden gems because of it.

But with nearly 700,000 lenses and 250,000 lensmasters, it’s a big challenge to stumble across all the goodness out there! So they thought: who better to help us hunt than our existing roster of hotshot Giant Squids, lensmasters and friends on Squidoo and SquidU. Afterall, you guys know best what makes a masterpiece.

Ergo: We’re running a Giant Squid Treasure Hunt. Details here. (And some cool prizes, too). Just hunt for lenses that match the clues we’ve given you. If the lens is exceptional, and the lensmaster isn’t a Giant yet, voila. You get a point. And so on.

Help us find people with impressive lensmaking chops, people worthy of becoming Giant Squids in the future. And maybe learn something you didn’t know along the way.

Happy hunting!

Launching in 3… 2…. 1….

Just go look at your profile page and you’ll see it. For example:
http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/realnerd.

A bunch of new features come with this, which you’ll discover as you dig in a little. For starters, go to the Profile tab on your Dashboard:
http://www.squidoo.com/member/profile.

Scroll down to the “More about me” section. Answer as many questions as you like! Some of them are intended to highlight your favorite external links, like your blog and your Twitter and Facebook pages. Others are chances to creatively point to your favorite Squidoo lenses. All the links you add here will populate your new Bio page.

Neat feature #2: You can spotlight up to 5 lenses (yours or a friend’s) right smack dab in the middle of the page. That’s what the “Check out these great lenses” section is. Also controlled, by you, via the Profile tab.

Neat feature #3: Now you can show a list of lenses you’ve “Favorited” in Squidoo. That shows in the left-hand sidebar, but only if you have “Share my Favorites” turned on in your Profile tab.

Play around with it and see what you think. As always, we’ll be testing this out with you for a few days and tweaking based on feedback.

My 2 cents: This is a really cool new improvement to the bio page, and turns the page into a content-rich destination for your fans, and for people Googling you.

Have fun!

UPDATE: We’re working out a few kinks with the Trivia Questions / More About Me part of the bio. Stay tuned.

We are happy to say the the Squidoo Charity Fund raised over $4,000 last month AND 90 other charities raised close to $3,000.

Wow! That’s not small change at all!

The Squidoo Activists nominated that $500 of the Squidoo Charity Fund be donated to Randy Pausch’s Alice Project in his memory.  Thank you all for making it possible.

You’ve probably seen them around.
Or come across some of their lenses and blogs.
Or maybe you’ve even heard from them directly, with encouraging words (and a hint or two) for your lenses.

I’m talking about our 3 Giant Squid Organizers. Bonnie, Robin and Patti.

These women are passionate lensmasters who give a lot of their time (and even more creativity and energy) to help make the Giant Squids program the robust, incredible community that it is.

They work hard to bring interesting ideas and perks and spotlight attention to our few hundred existing Giants.

But they also spend a lot of time with their ears to the ground, on the lookout for potential new hotshots with Giant Squid potential.

So, if you see a Giant Squid Organizer (and soon, a Giant Squid Greeter) show up on your lens, or in your inbox, chances are it’s because you’ve hit their radars as someone worth watching. And hey, why wait. If you think you’re making knockout pages, if you’ve got a growing addiction to Squidoo, why not drop a line to “giants at squidoo.com”. Bonnie will get back to you with some more info for upping your odds at becoming a Giant Squid yourself.

Lensmasters are excited about two great things this week, and we’re excited that you’re excited!

1. Finally! The time has come for a certain lensmaster to come clean about her love for Squidoo. I’m talking about beeobrein’s breakout lens:How do you know if you’re spending too much time on Squidoo? I mean…not that that’s a bad thing. We ARE a great place to be…

2. Who knew we had such great looking Giant Squids! *wolf whistle* Join SemperFidelis, Christene, and Johann the Dog by posting your best photo wearing your Giant Squid t-shirt (or any Squidoo shirt, for that matter!) Not a Giant Squid yet? What are you waiting for?

Thousands of our lensmasters joined Squidoo to build a lens and stay because of awesome people like you. Give yourself a big SquidSmootch.

A few weeks ago I posted about some of the backend changes we were making to the Lens of the Day newsletter.

We’re working with Google’s Feedburner to make this popular program better… but the nature of being one of their first, biggest lists means that we’re also experiencing some unexpected issues.

Lens of the Day will be back in action soon. It’s not on permanent vacation, I promise!

Thanks for hanging in.

Our Giant Squids are pretty awesome. No question.

Bonnie put together this video (yay, Animoto) of pics the Giants have sent in lately.

Of course, this means the squid’s out of the bag about the goodies we’ve been sending our Giants. If the Giant Squid Organizers see you do something special, mentoring a new user, starting a killer new lens, blogging something insightful, they just might drop a tee in the mail to say thanks….

And hey, if you’re a Giant, your chances of getting one are, on average, 99.99999999999% better than winning the lottery. Batteries not required. Void where prohibited. Don’t swim with sharks. No bribes accepted.

Heads up! We’re going to take the Squidservers down for two hours tonight, from 12am to 2am EST (4am - 6am GMT).

Just regular maintenance to further engooden the site. Join the SquidU forum thread for the latest updates.

Update: We’re back! Thanks for your patience.

Boy oh boy do we have some active Activists!

They ran a great bake sale to raise money and awareness for charity. Joan4 won lens of the day for her Congo Square and$100 will be donated to Joan4’s charity of choice, Heifer International.

This week we are on to Virtual Concerts.  If I wanted to raise money for my favorite charity, you bet your bottom dollar I’d ask U2 to play a benefit concert!

Make a lens on your favorite group. Set the proceeds to charity. Ask an Activist to have a look. They are in charge of nominating our winner who will get LoTD and $100 to their favorite charity.

That rocks!

Squidoo makes it really really (really!) easy to share your favorite stuff online, discover great recommendations, earn a little dough and even give to charity. All for free. What's your passion (insert: hobby, job, favorite music, holiday wishlist, pet stories, marketing tips, sports heroes, and so on)? Don't get addicted, we dare you.