Thankuz – This free service makes it simple and fun to create and send thank you letters to whoever you wish. Choose a template, customize the text and appearance to your liking and make it your own. Saying Thank You means a lot – much more than you think. Thankuz makes it super easy and fast.

Picplum – Earlier this month I wrote about Snail Mail My Email, a community art project that turned email messages into handwritten letters and sent them to people’s physical post boxes. Well, this Weekly Fave is based on a similar concept, but instead of handwritten letters, Picplum dives into the retro experience of sending photo prints (yes, actual photos you can hold in your hand).

How does Picplum work? Either upload or email the pictures you want to be sent as prints, and provide a recipient’s address. Picplum prints these on paper and sends them to your family, friends or whatever recipient you requested. Send the first batch of printed photos for free, and if you want automatic printing, plans start at $7/month.

Threewords.me – The idea of this unique site is simple. Sign up, send your friends your threewords.me link and see how they describe you (anonymously) using just three words. I guess this is a decent way to get an honest opinion about oneself, and I’m sure many people would love to use it. However, if I were clueless or curious about how I’m perceived by my friends, I would simply ask them face to face instead of using a third party in the form of cold technology. But that’s just me.

Tastebuds – Ever started dating a gorgeous man or a woman and had a great feeling he or she could be the one, only to discover the turn-off of mismatched music preferences? Music means so much to us on a daily basis, and it can say a lot about the people who choose one artist over another. Tastebuds tries to play the music card in the online dating scene, matching you up with men or women with the same musical taste as yours.

Start off by providing at least three of your favorite artists, specify your gender and sough-after sex, and Tastebuds will show you a list of relevant candidates. Sign up to get the site’s full service and start meeting new people you share something in common.

I did a quick search for men within my age range, in the USA (you can also search for singles in any other country), and received a list of possible dates. The interface is beautifully designed, which gives the proper presentation of listed singles even in the ‘quick preview’ screen made up of a decently sized photo and a short bio paragraph.

Although I’m happy I’ve already found my special someone, Tastebuds’ way of meeting new people is an out of the box approach I hope will catch on. And if you’re a single man or woman reading this post, what’s there to lose? Sign up to Tastebuds.

Proust – For those of you unfamiliar with Marcel Proust, the man after which this website is called, here’s the gist: This 19-century French novelist is most famous for his work In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927), where the main character, while having a pleasant visit at a relative’s house, is taken aback by a powerful moment of involuntary memory -his childhood- and goes through a strong emotional experience, all as a result of the Madeleine cookie’s taste in his mouth. Proust the website plays on the same family moments theme and offers an easy platform to create, document and share family memories.

Sign up to Proust.com and start creating your story. The system will ask you a few questions to get you started, and from then on you can share these, send questions to family members and see where the story takes you and your family. Here’s Tom’s story as an example. To learn more about Proust.com watch the video below.

Archives –  Like Geni and Ancestry.com Archives, too, wishes to become a leader in the family history tracing industry. But instead of supplying merely the platform for adding, processing and viewing user-fed data, Archives already comes with “a database of over one billion fully searchable records and historical documents” which are continually updated.

With Archives, tracing family trees and ancestry is both affordable and simple. If you were considering embarking on a family roots project, Archives should be your first one to explore. Besides, there are many rewards to family history research; here’s what other people have found.

Vivid Ways – A Winning Weekly Blog for a reason, Vivid Ways is all about positive inspiration posts to help you achieve healthy and enriched well-being, be it in your relationships, work environment, psychology and more.

Vivid Ways is the virtual space of Scott McIntyre who uses this blog to share his “experiences of colorful living and to connect with others who want to get more out of life.” Some of the insightful posts I found here include Stop Trying to be Perfect Because Your Best is Good Enough and Are You Ready to Take a Risk? This is a purely positive RSS to add to your daily reads online.

Map Your Valentine – Apparently Google can get cute. Really cute. Using the company’s maps and street view technology, Google offers an original way to send a lovely greeting card to the one you love. How does it work? Fill out the email addresses of receiver and sender, type a location that is special to the two of you (i.e. the restaurant where the marriage proposal took place, the street corner where the two of you first met, etc) and add a personal note in the text box. You can choose between a map and a street view image for that romantic location.

The end result is a sweet “I Love You” letter showing two little Google Maps location icons, forming a small heart shape, showing the exact place of your choice. What a unique way to cherish those magical moments of love, especially on St. Valentine’s Day!

Appreciate It – This site is straightforward and heart-warming; each user submits the thing he or she is appreciative of or thankful for, and the accumulated submissions creates a huge cloud of interesting, often bizarre, ‘I appreciate it’ notes. Some of my favorites include “being clean,” “the health of my family, the greatest wealth is health,” and “having a healthy baby at 40.” What were you appreciative for in 2010? Submit it using the form on the bottom of the page.

Prolific Living – A Weekly Blog winner, this inspiring little piece of blog heaven is brought to us by Farnoosh, who promises to deliver “Smart Habits for Rich Living.” Armed with a knock-out experience in management, communication, organizational skills and witty writing, Farnoosh offers grade A tips for a fuller life and a satisfied soul.

To give a couple of examples of Prolific Living’s insightful reads, I highly recommend reading these two posts: Self-Reflection: 19 Things I Wish I Knew Earlier in Life and From Fear to Motivation 22 Radical Thoughts. These are but two examples of the immense world of better mind and body tips Farnoosh is offering on Prolific Living. Other topics you will find here include ‘for fun,’ ‘for the body,’ for the heart,’ ‘for the mind,’ ‘for the soul,’ ‘on the road,’ podcasts and videos.  If you’re seeking well-written inspiration to last a lifetime, Prolific Living is it. Here’s an interesting video Farnoosh has published on her blog, titled Yoga Flow Series 1: Welcoming Fall. Yes, she does that, too! Enjoy.

How About We… – When I used to be a member of a certain online dating site, the experience was always awkward and felt a bit fake. Each man’s profile I read on the site seemed like a marketing pitch and I would always approach every message or conversation I had there with great suspicion and doubt. If the online dating experience is not your cup of tea either, but you’re still eager to meet singles, check out How About We…

This site’s basic approach is fundamentally different from any other online dating site. Instead of constructing a (let’s face it) sugar glazed profile of who you are and what you’re looking for, you come up with your idea of a good date by starting with the words “How about we…” (ex. How about we visit my neighborhood’s new brewery?) This way you have a much better chance of attracting singles interested in the same things you are, hence, increased probability of a good match.  My friend Mia from Palo Alto, CA tried out this service and said it’s “a refreshing take on online dating I’d actually like to try out for a while.” Need I say more?