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Crunchies: Best of the Best
December 26, 2007
The Web 2.0 review blog TechCrunch has opened voting for the 2007 Crunchies. These geeky awards are given for categories such as best startup, hottest gadget, and biggest tech breakthrough. The Crunchies also provide a nice end-of-year overview of incredible new ideas that came to life this year.
The category for best overall for 2007 - the big cheese of Web 2.0 this year - is dominated by some huge names that you might never have heard before and some others that are already soooo last year. Digg is a social news site where users vote stories to the front page. Though a huge player earlier in the year, Digg seems to be in a bit of a slump lately. Facebook you probably know as the college version of MySpace that opened up to everyone. Their recent invasions of users' privacy may hurt their chances here. Twitter is big, even though it is built around the idea of small messages. Interactive real estate search engine Zillow hits a niche market (people looking at or for real estate) but does this so well that they are a natural fit for the best of category. Besides, it is fun to Zillow your own home and see what is going on in the neighborhood. The last entry, GrandCentral, seeks to ease the woes of communication by giving you one single phone number. They must be on to something, because the site was gobbled up by Google earlier this year.
What else is out there?
One of the nominees for technology innovation or achievement is Like.com, a visual shopping engine. This site can show you other red dresses that look like the one you provide, or it can use the provided style but change the color to blue. Will libraries finally have a way to find that green book that has a picture of a boy and a dog on the front? Another nominee from the same category, Move Networks, is also being recognized for a new technology that will probably have a great deal of impact on libraries. While they don't actually provide a direct service, Move Networks powers video streaming for some of the largest networks. Check out examples from some of their clients to see the possibilities for high quality video delivered directly to your computer. What is the role of libraries in video loaning given this new technology?
Video continues to dominate the other categories, with online video "networks" like Joost and Hulu as well as other video offerings making repeat appearances including in best new start-up for 2007. Joining Hulu and Joost in that category are medical information site iMedix, new geek mobile phone company Ribbit, and micropublishing platform Tumblr. Though Hulu and Joost provide nice entertainment, Tumblr has the best potential for professional use in a library.
Posted by Chris Harris on December 26, 2007 | Comments (0)
