The Crunchies are an awards ceremony sponsored by TechCrunch --if you're interested in anything emerging in the digital space, you should read it daily--that highlight the best start ups and new technologies for the year just passed. The winners, announced last night, are chosen by the online community of voters. This could explain why Facebook won best overall startup when at 6 years old, it certainly doesn't qualify as one. However, you can bet every single voter has a facebook acct and uses it daily! But the reason I am posting this is not so much because of the winners, but more because of the list of nominees. Watch these companies, they will certainly be playing a more dominant role in 2010..and start using them if you're not already. My list of recommendations is here:
- Bing
- Posterous
- Everything listed under Social Apps
- Foursquare/ Gowalla Tweetdeck
- Pandora
- Google Docs
- Google Wave (I'll be adding a post later today on the Googlization of the world!)
Sorry I have a strong aversion to Farmville and cannot recommend this though I know it's incredibly popular.
Best Technology Achievement:Backblaze
- Bing (Microsoft)
- Chrome OS (Google) (Winner)
- Google Wave
- PuSH
- Silverlight (Microsoft)
Best Internet Application:Animoto
- Dropbox(Winner)
- Groupon
- MOG All Access
- Posterous
- Yelp
Best Social App:
- Aardvark
- Brizzly
- DailyBooth
- Farmville(Winner)
- SocialVibe
- StockTwits
Best Bootstrapped StartUp:
- atebits (Tweetie)
- Shoes of Prey
- Tinychat(Winner)
- Wildfire Interactive
- wizehive
- Wufoo
Best Mobile Application:
- foursquare(Winner)
- Google Voice Gowalla
- Kindle for iPhone
- Skies of Glory
- Tonchidot
Best International:
- Amiando
- Jolicloud
- Playfish
- Spotify (Winner)
- TweetDeck
- vente-privee.com
Best Time Sink Application:
- Canabalt
- Civilization Revolution (iPhone)
- DailyBooth(Winner)
- I Am T-Pain
- Pandora
- Zoosk
Best Design:
- Animoto(Winner)
- Brizzly
- Chrome (Google)
- Clicker
- Facebook Mobile
- Threadsy
Best Enterprise:
- Amazon Web Services
- Atlassian
- Azure (Microsoft)
- Chatter (Salesforce) Google Docs/Office(Winner)
- Yext
Best CleanTech:
- CalStar Products
- Locust Storage
- Picarro
- Sappphire Energy
- Sun Run(Winner)
- Tendril
Best New Gadget:
- Apple Magic Mouse
- Barnes & Noble nook(Winner)
- litl webbookMotorola Droid
- Sonos S5
- Zune HD
Best Tech PR:
- Brew Media Relations
- LaunchSquad
- OutCast Communications
- PerkettPR
- Spark(Winner)
- SutherlandGold Group
Best Angel:
- Betaworks
- Chris Sacca (Lowercase Capital)
- Jeff Clavier (SoftTechVC)
- Ron Conway (SV Angel)(Winner)
- Y-Combinator
- Yossi Vardi
Best VC Firm:
- Accel Partners(Winner)
- Charles River Ventures
- Benchmark Capital
- Greylock Partners
- Sequoia Capital
- True Ventures
- Union Square Ventures
Founder Of The Year:
- Aaron Patzer (Mint)(Winner)
- Elon Musk (Tesla)
- Jack Dorsey (Square)
- Jeremy Stoppelman & Russ Simmons (Yelp)
- John Borthwick (Betaworks)
- Omar Hamoui (AdMob)
CEO Of The Year:
- Josh Silverman (Skype)
- Marc Benioff (Salesforce)
- Mark Pincus (Zynga)(Winner)
- Neil Young (ngmoco)
- Richard Rosenblatt (Demand Media)
- Tony Hsieh (Zappos)
Best New Startup Or Product Of 2009:
- Aardvark
- Bing (Microsoft) (Winner)
- Foursquare
- Hunch
- Milo
- Spotify
Best Overall Startup Or Product Of 2009:
- Android (Google)
- Facebook(Winner)
- LinkedIn
- ngmoco
- Twitter
- Zynga