The Crunchies: Best Tech Apps and Innovators of 2008
The results are in: the 2008 Crunchies recognized Google Reader, Windows Live Mesh, Cooliris and others as the most compelling startups, Internet and technology innovations of the year. This was the Crunchies’ second annual competition, co-hosted this year by GigaOm, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider and TechCrunch.
Online voting for the Crunchies ran Dec. 15 through Jan. 7, with the awards ceremony held last Friday in San Francisco. Here, in the order they were presented, are the winners and runners-up:
Best Application Or Service
Google Reader (winner)
MySpace Music (runner-up)
Best Technology Innovation/Achievement
Windows Live Mesh (winner)
Facebook Connect (runner-up)
Best Design
Cooliris (winner)
Animoto (runner-up)
Best Bootstrapped Startup
GitHub (winner)
12seconds.tv (runner-up)
Most Likely To Make The World A Better Place
GoodGuide (winner)
Kiva (runner-up)
Best Enterprise Startup
Amazon Web Services (winner)
Google App Engine (runner-up)
Best International Startup
eBuddy (winner)
Wuala (runner-up)
Best Clean Tech Startup
Project Frog (winner)
Better Place (runner-up)
Best New Gadget/Device
iPhone 3G (winner)
Android G1 (runner-up)
Best Time Sink Site/Application
Tap Tap Range (winner)
Texas Hold Em (runner-up)
Best Mobile Startup
Evernote (winner)
ChaCha (runner-up)
Best Mobile Application
imeem mobile (winner)
Google Mobile Application (runner-up)
Best Startup Founder
Evan Williams, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone (Twitter ) (winner)
Paul Buchheit, Jim Norris, Sanjeev Singh, Bret Taylor (FriendFeed ) (runner-up)
Best Startup CEO
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) (winner)
Jason Kilar (Hulu) (runner-up)
Best New Startup Of 2008
FriendFeed (winner)
Dropbox (runner-up)
Best Overall Startup In 2008
Facebook (winner)
Twitter (runner-up)
Voted as Best Application/Service, Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator that reads Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. Released by Google in October 2005 and out of beta since September 2007, it’s been gaining a phenomenal number of new users in the past year.
Windows Live Mesh was the top vote getter in the Best Technology Innovation/Achievement category. Live Mesh is designed to make it easy to synchronize files, access them from any device or the Web, share, and then get notified whenever someone changes a file.
Cooliris won Best Design for its new features and functionality. This extension for the Web and iPhone basically turns your browser into a 3D environment for thumbing through photos and videos.
And finally, voters named GoodGuide.com as Most Likely To Make The World A Better Place. This site Is a search portal for safe, healthy and green toys and products and now lists more than 65,000 items.
I’m glad GoodGuide.com won. I’m into green living since two years ago. I like to grow my own veggies and some fruits. I use biodegradeable products, especially with my detergents. I don’t use spray paints and aerosols anymore. The toys I bought for my kids didn’t have any lead paints on them.
I am happy to twitter won 2 rewards. I going to check out Goodguide.com. I not a died hard going green person but I do like cleaning products without alot of chemicals. I know google was going to win some rewards. iPhone is the best gadget. Thanks for the list
I am really happy that animoto is with those big names.
Though they are runners up in the best design category,They promises me a lot.