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Searchles has landed a big new publisher to implement its social discovery technology: The Washington Post and its MyPost social network. Now, when browsing the profiles of other MyPost members, you will see Searchles’ “Related Users” widget, which shows you other people who have taken an interest in similar stories on washingtonpost.com, based primarily on comments.

The basic idea is that connecting people based on similar reading habits is a good way to build a social network – especially one on a big media site. Clicking on users in the Related Users widget brings you to that user’s profile, where you can then see the comments that person has left on Washington Post articles. You can then navigate to the rest of the user’s profile, which includes basic features like a bio, interests, and photos. The Washington Post’s commenting and social networking features are powered by Pluck, which was recently acquired by Demand Media.

Similar to publisher offerings from companies like Loomia and Outbrain, which are focused on related content rather than users, the end-game is increased page views. From this perspective, I would think users are more likely to click on people than additional headlines, but Searchles UI appears to be lacking user photos in the widget, a big missed opportunity.

Searchles signed a similar deal last year with Total Telecom, a niche publisher for the communications industry. The company secured additional angel funding earlier this month and has raised a total of around $2 million to-date.

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