Drop.io is rooted in a model which highlights trust and transparency with the intent of minimizing the amount of information needed to share privately based on private URLs, passwords, and expiration settings. The model of privacy, which is known as Simple Privacy or Casual Privacy has been described by Kellan Elliott-McCrea of Flickr as “a design pattern for sharing non-public information using out-of-band exchange of unguessable tokens.” Another service following the same basic model is Flickr Guest Pass.

The service does not require embedded accounts, identity, search, or any other social elements. Its core philosophy is to create a simple, private system based on inputs and outputs. Users send “in” files (documents, images, videos, audio files, archives, and more) via various methods (web, mms, email, phone and fax) into their “Drops”. Once in the drops, users can view their content and move it “out” via the web, email, mms, and fax.

Drop.io was founded by entrepreneurs Sam Lessin and Darshan Somashekar in August 2007. The company was originally located in Manhattan and moved to its new office location in Dumbo, Brooklyn in 2008.

In November 2007, Drop.io completed a $1.2 million Series A round of financing lead by RRE Ventures to support the company’s development efforts and infrastructure growth. In March 2008, the company closed $2.7 million in series A-1 financing led by New York venture capital firms DFJ Gotham and RRE Ventures.

Drop.io was nominated for the Technical Achievement Award at the South By Southwest 11th Annual Web Awards in 2007.

On June 10th Drop.io and Scribd, the leading platform for online document publishing, announced a partnership to offer rich conversion and viewing within private “drops”, to make it easier for people to share private information online. As of 2008, users can find Drop.io on a number of social networking sites, including: Facebook and Twitter.

Between March 2007 and November 2008 drop.io released a series of feature improvements to their platform including ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ via various interfaces like phone and fax, a twitter ‘subscription’ mode, and a Firefox plugin that allows users to ‘drag and drop’ files into new or existing ‘drops’

In September 2008 drop.io released a very simple API which allows other applications to use drop.io’s file sharing ability in their own applications. Several early applications were built, including usend.io (a simple file transfer app like senduit or yousendit). Arstechnica appears to have built the first fully operational third party application on the API.

In November 2008 drop.io announced having moved 100% into ‘the cloud’ having switched away from all owned and rented physical hardware/servers and claimed to be the largest 100% in the cloud application in the world.

Also in November 2008 drop.io released a major design overhaul which completely changed the front end of the product, but maintained the core service.

In December 2008 drop.io was one of the first services to release a Facebook Connect integration, which allowed users to publish updates of any sort made to any drop directly to their facebook feed.

Drop.io is an account-free service that offers:

• 100 MB of free non-searchable storage with ability to upgrade to an infinite amount of storage for a fee
• Password protection and expiration settings
• Formatting and design customizations
• The ability to store and share images, documents, video, audio, and other digital content
• Free faxing
• Free e-mailing into and out of drops
• Free custom phone number and extension to add more information via e-mail, mms or phone
• Free voicemail sent into drops
• Custom expiration dates for each drop

Links

• drop.io

Skins – Personalize Opera Mini by choosing a new colorful skin. We have reintroduced the popular skinning feature from Opera Mini 3.

Performance – Opera Mini 4.2 can use our newly established server park in the US. This means significantly faster page downloads for our users in the Americas and Asia-Pacific region. Users in the rest of the world will also experience faster page downloads since we’ve reduced the load on our other servers.

Video – We are working to make video content available on more phones through Opera Mini. If you have a new Sony Ericsson or Nokia phone, the chance is high that you can take Opera Mini for a spin on m.youtube.com.

Sync Notes – The handy Notes functionality from the Opera Desktop Web browser just got more portable through Opera Link. All of your notes are available in Opera Mini directly from the Bookmarks menu.

Now even faster – Prior to this release, we upgraded our servers and Opera Mini now receives your requested Web pages up to 50% faster. So you can now access sites like Facebook, BBC, and any of your other favorite Web sites even faster, with desktop-like speeds.

Find things faster – The new Opera Mini lets you search for text within a Web page so you can get to the information you need even quicker than before.

Get to your Web sites faster – When typing Web addresses, Opera Mini will recognize and suggest completions for you based on your Bookmarks and browsing history, making address input faster, easier and much more intuitive.

Download and upload files – On phones with JSR-75, you can now upload and download files using Opera Mini, without being re-routed to your phone’s native browser. Update your blog while on the go. Upload photos to your Web site or social network. Add attachments easily to Web-based email, and download other non media-rich content to your phone using Opera Mini.

Save it for later – On phones with JSR-75, Opera Mini lets you save pages for offline viewing so you can quickly access and read your desired Web content, even when you’re on a plane, in the subway, or in other places where you can’t get network reception. Depending on your phone, you may need to choose a destination folder for storing pages for offline viewing.

Sync bookmarks and Speed Dial – Opera Mini features Opera Link, which allows you to synchronize your bookmarks and Speed Dial with a computer running Opera 9.50 or other mobile device running Opera Mini.

View pages in Landscape mode – To view the Web on a wider screen, just hit * # and flip your phone to the side to enjoy browsing in Landscape mode. Change your default view to landscape by turning “Landscape mode” on inside the Settings menu.

Give your phone a mouse – Opera Mini gives your phone a virtual mouse, so you can easily scroll in any direction. Move the mouse cursor towards what you want, and then it quickly snaps your view to the link or content.

Power scrolling shortcuts – Scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad. Find your way around on the Web pages quicker by using your phone’s number keys. Press 2 to go up, 4 to go left, 6 to go right and 8 to go down. Hitting 5 zooms you in and out.

Create custom search shortcuts – Just like in Opera for your computer, you can create your own Web search from any search field on the Internet using Opera Mini. Simply click on the search field that you want to grab on a Web page and then choose “Create search” within your menu alternatives. Then you can enjoy making frequent searches without having to type in the site link again.

Tools and support for Web designers – We support Web designers who want to make their Web sites look even better to those browsing with Opera Mini. In Opera Mini, we have included all of the CSS support that Web designers need to make their Web pages look pixel perfect on in the mobile Web world.

Full Web in your palm – When visiting a Web page, Opera Mini displays the overview of the page and suggests where to begin your reading.

Built for speed – Opera Mini is built for speed. Web pages are compressed by up to 90% of its orginal size for speed, saving your time & money.

Links

• Opera Website
• Download Opera Mini

1. Resumizer – reate, edit, and manage resumes with a free online tool.
2. Free SMS – end SMS to your friends for free.
3. Kaspersky Online Virus Scanner – Scan your computer for any virus without uninstalling and installing antivirus software.
4. Yahoo Mail – Check for messages you get via Yahoo! mail.
5. MSN – Use MSN messenger from your iPhone.
6. MSN Hotmail – Send and receive personalized e-mail messages from any computer in the world.
7. Veoh – Broadcast videos online.
8. RapidShare – Upload and share files online.
9. JumpCut – Create, edit, and share your own movies online.
10. Adobe Photoshop Express – Upload, edit, manage, and share digital photos for free online.
11. Picnik – Remove red-eye and apply effects to your photos online.
12. Facebook – Upload and share photos and videos and connect with your friends.
13. Shazam – Find music information using your mobile phone.
14. Meebo – Chat with your friends in popular IM networks via Web-based interface.
15. Downloadyoutubevideos – Download YouTube videos.
16. eBuddy – Chat with your MSN, AOL, and Yahoo buddies without any program or Java applet.
17. Mii Editor – Create or modify Mii avatars online.
18. Google Maps for iPod Touch – Access Google Maps on your iPod Touch.
19. Facebook for iPhone (Web) – Access your Facebook profile, status, message, and friends with your iPhone.
20. IONBowling – Play a virtual bowling game on your iPhone.
21. Boxhead: The Zombie Wars – Kill demons and reach levels with the “expert” difficulty.
22. Xbox Live Gamer Tag Generator – Access and view your gamer tag and information.
23. Trend Micro HouseCall – Check, identify, and fix malware infection.
24. Smilebox – Modify and share your digital photos.
25. iTouch – Test and develop your iPhone-ing abilities.

Google Friend Connect is an Open Social application offered by Google that started in May 2008. Google Friend Connect main focus is to simplify the connection between social and non-social websites and standardize the handling and presentation of social applications and content. It uses a blend of open standards, such as OpenID for signin, oAuth to control data, and Open Social for applications.

Google Friend Connect is free but requires approval of the website using it. It requires no knowledge of web programming and enables any website to offer social applications and content from Facebook, Hi5, Orkut, Plaxo, MySpace, Google Talk and other social networks.

At the time the interface is in English and there’s no option to choose other languages. Google didn’t announce any plans to translate it and most words can’t be translated by the site that implements it.

Examples of use are:

1. E-commerce site: Allow users to check whether friends purchased or review the product you are interested in on the product web page.
2. News sites: Allow users insert comments and opinions with their real profile.
3. Organization Sites: Increase marketing and communication within members of the organization.
4. Blogs and Personal Websites: Increase communication within author friends.

Competitors

• Facebook Connect

Links

• Google Friend Connect

The company strengthens the online community through off-line events at nightclubs, bars, restaurants, and cultural venues in various cities for its most prolific and loyal contributors, named “Elite” members on the site. These members must provide a photo and their real name, and in return receive a special indicator on their personalized page for every year they author a specific number of reviews. The concept is meant to indicate that the user is a trusted author of business reviews.

The site also has a forum for online socialization and to discuss local businesses and events.

A number of competitors emulating these Yelp concepts have failed or were acquired.

Content

The Yelp sites have listings for businesses throughout the United States and Canada and accept reviews of any business or service. Listings vary widely in nature with the site including listings for storefronts such as restaurants and shops; service businesses such as doctors, hotels, and cultural venues; and non-business locations such as schools, museums, parks, and churches.

San Francisco, the home city, remains the most active as of 2008, with significant adoption in 18 metro areas including Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., San Diego, and Los Angeles. San Francisco usage has earned the site over 4000 reviewed restaurant listings, some with 100s of reviews each. The site boasts of having over 2.3 million reviews overall as of February 2008. Reviews trend 85% positive as estimated by the CEO and are thought to come primarily from the 26-35yo demographic.

API

Yelp released a free REST- and JSON-based application programming interface (API) in August 2007. The API provides access to business listing details, reviews, photos, and ratings and can be used to add business information to a website, widget, or mobile application. The API has been used to integrate business reviews into existing Google Maps applications such as on Zillow.com and HotelMapSearch.com.

Facebook Beacon integration

In December 2007 Yelp implemented Facebook Beacon. Changes to the site privacy policy were made to accommodate this feature, which experienced some negative press at the time.

Advertising program

Businesses may advertise with Yelp for preferred search result placement and extra listing features. For the advertising fee, the business may include an individualized message and photo slide show onto the web page for its listing as well as receive reports on listing traffic. Additionally, these advertisers, called “Sponsors” on the site, are allowed to highlight a specific review and communicate with reviewers.

Criticism

As with many review sites, Yelp has been criticized over the fairness of negative reviews on the site. Some business owners have even posted “No Yelpers” signs in frustration. Yelp defends its practices and states that it will not censor user comments, although it does remove favorable reviews that are considered “suspicious”. Criticism has also been levied by business owners who believe that the ordering of reviews is controlled and used to pressure businesses into advertising, with salespersons suggesting negative reviews can be placed last for a fee. Yelp rejects these charges and believes there is possibly confusion around the highlighted review offering.

Other Information

• Founded October 2004
• Headquarters San Francisco, CA
• Key people Jeremy Stoppelman, Co-founder/CEO, Russel Simmons, Co-founder/CTO, and Geoff Donaker COO
• Industry Business ratings and reviews
• Products Yelp.com
• Employees 150+
• Website www.yelp.com
• Crunchies 2008 winner

At meebo.com, millions of people every month keep in touch with friends on an any IM network (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk and Gmail, MySpace IM, Facebook Chat, and more!) and chat with people in Meebo Rooms. Meebo also enables live communication integrated into any website with Meebo Rooms, Meebo Community IM, and Meebo Me. Meebo is the Web’s live communication platform – instant messaging from absolutely anywhere, no downloads or installs required, and free!

Meebo launched in September 2005. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JAFCO Ventures, Time Warner Investments, and KTB Ventures. We have over 75 corporate partners, including major record labels, global media companies, social networks, games portals, and some of the world’s most-talented application developers.

Meebo Services

• Meebo Repeater is a software download for people who want to chat safely when their IM access is restricted. Just install the repeater on a computer that can access the Web freely, and then use that computer to bounce the signal to Meebo. It’s simple and secure.
• meebo me - turn your web page into a chat page. Meebo Me lets you chat with anyone who comes to your blog or Web page. Visitors show up in your Meebo buddylist so you can strike up a conversation, answer questions, or just keep tabs on guests. Publish your online status so friends can see if you’re available when they visit your site.

Competitors

• MSN Web Messenger
• AIM Express
• Google Talk
• Yahoo! Web Messenger
• Heysan
• KoolIM
• IMUnitive
• imhaha
• eBuddy
• orgoo
• iloveim
• imo.im
• Soashable

Links

• meebo Website
• Meebo Firefox Extention
• meebo repeater
• Meebo Me

Fastest Rising (Global) 2008

1. sarah palin
2. beijing 2008
3. facebook login
4. tuenti
5. heath ledger
6. obama
7. nasza klasa
8. wer kennt wen
9. euro 2008
10. jonas brothers

Methodology

In compiling the 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist, our search team studied the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed in to the Google search box. Except where noted, all of these search terms are most popular for 2008. All of the search queries we studied are anonymous — no personal information was used.

Links

• Google zeitgeist 2008

eBuddy is a web browser-based instant messaging service that originally started as e-Messenger in 2003. It combines MSN, AOL, Google Talk, ICQ, Facebook and MySpace IM into a single web based interface. It is also available via mobile phones, independent of carrier or device via WAP or mobile internet browser.

eBuddy is a privately-held company backed by Prime Technology Ventures and Lowland Capital Partners.

eBuddy is headquartered in Amsterdam and has a second, local office in London. The company launched a third and fourth, US office in San Francisco in April 2008.

History

Paulo Taylor is the inventor of eBuddy. The idea came to life when he made a bet with a friend in which he said he could get MSN to work on a mobile phone. Working full-time at an internet company, Paulo spent his after hours working on a mobile MSN application. After several weeks, he won the bet and uploaded the application on a server. It was here that visitors asked if he could make a web version of the application. As user traffic spurred, Paulo decided to take the idea to the next level.

On September 9th 2003, Paulo together with two partners created EverywhereMSN.com. Microsoft however claimed the domain name and shortly after on December 4th 2003 the domain was changed to e-messenger.net. On May 1st 2004, e-Messenger became incorporated. On June 1st 2006, e-Messenger was renamed to eBuddy.

Features

eBuddy offers a secure login option. Users can also indicate if they wish to sign on invisibly. The chat client includes a tab mode setting to differentiate chat windows, similar to tabbed web browsing. The beta version released in June 2007 supports multiple IM networks in one interface.

Mobile

The mobile instant messaging version (eBuddy Lite), compatible with Cell Phones, PDAs, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS works on devices that support WAP or xHTML.

In June 2007, a Java ME client (eBuddy Mobile) was released that is claimed to work on the top 600 cellular phones used worldwide.

iPhone

On July 13th eBuddy released an Alpha version for the iPhone. It is based on the same AJAX platform as the Beta web version. Somewhere at the start of 2008, the eBuddy iPhone version started to point to their Lite Messenger. An optimized version of the Lite Messenger is provided to iPhone users.

Unsupported features

* QQ Protocol
* Skinning – Users cannot customize application appearance.
* Webcam interface – Users cannot utilize a webcam.
* File Transfer – Users cannot send or receive files.

Links

• eBuddy homepage

Animoto analyzes the provided photos and music, automatically generating a trailer like video. According to Animoto website, its engine analyzes users’ photos and music and takes into consideration music’s genre, rhythm, and tempo to generate a video that takes into the song’s nuances. The site claims no two videos are ever the same.

As of Auguest 2008, 250,000 users in over 200 countries have registered with Animoto.com with 4 million videos and 50 million views.

Slide, Rock You and Photobucket are among competitors for Animoto. Animoto’s founders have produced shows for MTV, Comody Central and ABC.

History

Animoto was founded on August 2006.

Amazon funded Animoto in May 2008 with an undisclosed amount. Animoto is based in New York with an office in San Francisco.

On March 2008, The Animoto Videos application launched on Facebook and became a popular way for users to showcase their photos on the social network. It was integrated with YouTube, allowing users to export Animoto videos directly to YouTube easily. As of Aug 2008 nearly 50,000 videos have been uploaded to YouTube.

On June 2008, Animoto introduced DVD-quality upgrades for users to view videos in televisions.

By end of 2008, Animoto for Business and Animoto for Education were launched. Animoto for Education gives teachers and students unlimited access to its standard & premium services for free.

More information

• Founded August 2006
• Headquarters New York, NY
• Key people Brad Jefferson, Jason Hsiao co-founders
• Services software applications
• Website http://animoto.com/

Best Application Or Service

Google Reader (winner)

Google Reader is a Web-based aggregator, capable of reading Atom and RSS feeds online or offline. It was released by Google on October 7, 2005 through Google Labs. Reader graduated from beta status on September 17, 2007.

MySpace Music (runner-up)

MySpace Music section differ from normal profiles in allowing artists to upload up to six MP3 songs. The uploader must have rights to use the songs (e.g. their own work, permission granted, etc). Unsigned musicians can use MySpace to post and sell music using SNOCAP, which has proven popular among MySpace users.

Get Satisfaction

Get Satisfaction is a direct connection between people and companies that fosters problem-solving, promotes sharing, and builds up relationships. Thousands of companies use this neutral space to support customers, exchange ideas, and get feedback about their products and services…

Minted

Minted is an online stationery store. They crowd-source designs from the professional design community to create high end templates for invitations, holiday cards, and all kinds of stationery.

Meebo

Meebo is a new communications and media company that’s re-writing the way people have conversations and communicate on the Web. We provide instant messaging and group chat to over 40 million people at meebo.com and via partner sites across the Web. At meebo.com, millions of people every month keep in touch with friends on an any IM network (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk and Gmail, MySpace IM, Facebook Chat, and more!) and chat with people in Meebo Rooms.

Yelp

Yelp combines local reviews and social networking functionality to create a local online community. Adding social web functionality to user reviews creates a de-facto reputation system, whereby site visitors can see which contributing users are the most popular, respected, and prolific, how long each has been a member…

Best Technology Innovation/Achievement

Windows Live Mesh (winner)

Live Mesh is a data synchronization system from Microsoft that allows files and folders to be shared and synchronized across multiple devices. Live Mesh consists of a software component that allows synchronization relationships to be created among different devices. Once a folder is set for synchronization, it will be available in all devices, and any changes made to the content of the folder will be reflected across all devices.

Facebook Connect (runner-up)

Facebook is a popular, free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website’s name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other

Google Friend Connect

Google Friend Connect is an Open Social application offered by Google that started in May 2008. Google Friend Connect main focus is to simplify the connection between social and non-social websites and standardize the handling and presentation of social applications and content. It uses a blend of open standards, such as OpenID for signin, oAuth to control data, and Open Social for applications.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a free web browser developed by Google that has about 1% share of browser market. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or “chrome”, of web browsers. Chromium is the open source project behind Google Chrome, and is released under the BSD license. It implements the same feature set, but has a slightly different logo.

Swype

Swype creates text input technology for screens. The patented interface enables users to create words with one continuous finger motion across an on-screen keyboard. This approach provides a faster and easier way to write. Swype delivers single-tap, multi-tap, predictive and “swype” motions for both stylus and finger based input. In addition, the application is designed to work across a variety of devices such as phones, tablets, game consoles, kiosks, televisions, virtual screens and more.

Yahoo BOSS

Yahoo! Search BOSS (Build your Own Search Service) is a Yahoo! Developer Network initiative to provide an open search web services platform. The main goal and idea of BOSS is to give users, in this case developer’s free access to the Yahoo! Search index. The results can be supplied into the developer’s website or program so that they can manipulate the resources according to their product’s requirements…

Best Design

Cooliris (winner)

Cooliris, formerly known as PicLens, is a web browser plugin that provides interactive full-screen slideshows of online images. The plugin is available for Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. At present, the software is compatible with Google Image Search, Yahoo! Image Search, Ask.com Images, Live Search Images, AOL Image Search, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, Fotki, FotoTime, deviantART, SmugMug, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, hi5, Friendster, YouTube (for videos), Gallery, and any web site that implements mediaRSS <link> tags in their HTML pages. The software places a small icon in the corner of an image thumbnail when the mouse moves over it, which launches into a full-screen photo viewer when clicked.

Animoto (runner-up)

Animoto is a web application that, with the click of a button, produces videos using images and music that a user selects. Using their patent-pending Artificial Intelligence developed to think like an actual editor & director, the resulting video has the emotional impact of a movie trailer and the visual energy of a music video.

Friendfeed

FriendFeed is a feed aggregator that consolidates the updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and micro-blogging updates, as well as any other type of RSS/ Atom feed. Users can use this stream of information to create customized feeds to share (and comment) with friends.

Infectious

Infectious creates and sells self expression stickers for your car. The stickers, which are made to be durable yet removable, are made out of the same materials as ad wraps used on cars and buses. The company recommends 18-24 months of usage per sticker, but says they will likely last a lot longer.

Lala

Lala is a hub for online music discovery and purchasing. Users can listen for free music, adding tracks to their playlist as they surf. members who download a plugin can turn Lala into an online music locker that syncs their desktop music libraries to their Lala account. Long uploads aren’t necessary. If Lala already has the song in their library, they simply unlock the file to you online.

Sliderocket

SlideRocket is a rich internet application (RIA) that provides for every part of the presentation life cycle. It integrates authoring, asset management, delivery and analytics tools in a single hosted environment that allows you to quickly create great looking presentations, store, tag and search your assets, collaborate with your colleagues, securely share your slides in person or remotely and measure the results.

Best Bootstrapped Startup

GitHub (winner)

GitHub is a project hosting service for projects using the Git revision control system. It is written in Ruby on Rails, being developed by Logical Awesome (Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Tom Preston-Werner). GitHub operates a pastebin-style site at gist.github.com

12seconds.tv (runner-up)

12seconds is the best place online for video status updates. It’s a super easy way to share what you’re doing with your friends and family using short video clips. You can use your web cam or mobile phone. Show your friends where you are, share your thoughts, or tell them how you’re doing. We are building a video status platform that will help you keep up to date with your friends 12 seconds at a time.

• BackType
• Socialcast
• StatSheet

Most Likely To Make The World A Better Place

GoodGuide (winner)

GoodGuide™ strives to provide the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of products and companies. GoodGuide’s mission is to help you find safe, healthy, and green products that are better for you and the planet. From our origins as a UC Berkeley research project, GoodGuide has developed into a totally independent “For-Benefit” company. We are committed to providing the information you need to make better decisions, and to ultimately shifting the balance of information and power in the marketplace.

• Kiva (runner-up)
• Akoha
• Causes
• CO2Stats
• Better Place

Best Enterprise Startup

Amazon Web Services (winner)

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) are a collection of remote computing services (also called web services) offered over the Internet by Amazon.com. Launched in July 2002, Amazon Web Services provide online services for other web sites or client-side applications. Most of these services are not exposed directly to end users, but instead offer functionality that other developers can use. In June 2007, Amazon claimed that more than 330,000 developers had signed up to use Amazon Web Services.

Google App Engine (runner-up)

Google App Engine is a platform for building and hosting web applications on Google Web Servers. It was first released as a beta version in April 2008. During its preview release, only free accounts are offered. According to Google, a free account can use up to 500 MB of persistent storage and enough CPU and bandwidth for about 5 million page views a month. Google has also indicated its intention to eventually provide additional resources for a price. During the preview stage, Google App Engine tries to accommodate sudden surges in traffic, but errors will occur if the quota continues to be exceeded.

• Force.com
• Yammer
• Zoho

Best International Startup

eBuddy (winner)

eBuddy is a web & mobile messenger which supports various instant messaging services including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo!, AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Facebook, and MySpace IM. eBuddy is a web browser-based instant messaging service that originally started as e-Messenger in 2003. It combines MSN, AOL, Google Talk, ICQ, Facebook and MySpace IM into a single web based interface. It is also available via mobile phones, independent of carrier or device via WAP or mobile internet browser.

• Wuala (runner-up)
• Fotonauts
• OpenX
• Vente-privee

Best Clean Tech Startup

• Project Frog (winner)
• Better Place (runner-up)
• Boston Power
• ElectraDrive
• Laurus Energy

Best New Gadget/Device

• iPhone 3G (winner)
• Android G1 (runner-up)
• Ausus EEE 1000 Series
• Flip MinoHD
• SlingCatcher

Best Time Sink Site/Application

• Tap Tap Range (winner)
• Texas Hold Em (runner-up)
• Mob Wars
• iBowl
• Zivity

Best Mobile Startup

Evernote (winner)

Evernote is a software application that allows users to capture information of various types, including text notes, mobile phone snapshots, printed and handwritten text within images, web clips, and digital ink. All data added to Evernote are run through a series of recognizers that make any text within the various note formats searchable. The application uses a continuous “roll of paper” metaphor for its user interface. Additionally, users may create folders, categories and notebooks.

• ChaCha (runner-up)
• Posterous
• Qik Skyfire
• Truphone

Best Mobile Application

imeem mobile (winner)

imeem for Android helps people easily discover music that matches their tastes. The application enables users to create custom Internet radio stations by searching for specific artists, discover new music through personalized recommendations and listen to the most popular artists in the imeem community. .

Google Mobile Application (runner-up)

Google’s mobile application is available for the Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and numerous other mobile phone solutions. The application supports websearch, directions, maps, business listings, GMail, YouTube, and phone contact search. Google Mobile also supports an SMS search system..

• Pandora Radio
• rolando
• ShopSavvy
• Ocarina

Best Startup Founder

• Linda Avery and Anne Wojcicki (23andMe)
• Michael Birch and Xochi Birch (Bebo)
• Robert Kalin (Etsy)
• 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)
• Tony Hsieh (Zappos)
• Elon Musk (SpaceX)
• Andy Rubin (Android)

Best New Startup Of 2008

FriendFeed (winner)

FriendFeed is a feed aggregator that consolidates the updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and micro-blogging updates, as well as any other type of RSS/ Atom feed. Users can use this stream of information to create customized feeds to share (and comment) with friends.

Dropbox (runner-up)

Dropbox is a storage application and service operated by Evenflow, Inc. The service enables users to store and sync files online and between computers. Dropbox has a cross-platform client (Windows, Mac and Linux) that enables users to drop any file into a Dropbox folder that is then synced to the web and the users’ other computers with the Dropbox client.

• GoodGuide
• Tapulous
• Topsin Media
• Yammer

Best Overall Startup In 2008

Facebook (winner)

Facebook is a popular, free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website’s name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other.

Twitter (runner-up)

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, or email, or through an application such as …

Amazon Web Services

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) are a collection of remote computing services (also called web services) offered over the Internet by Amazon.com. Launched in July 2002, Amazon Web Services provide online services for other web sites or client-side applications. Most of these services are not exposed directly to end users, but instead offer functionality that other developers can use. In June 2007, Amazon claimed that more than 330,000 developers had signed up to use Amazon Web Services.

Android

The Android platform is a software stack for mobile devices including an operating system, middleware and key applications. Developers can create applications for the platform using the Android SDK. Applications are written using the Java programming language and run on Dalvik, a custom virtual machine designed for embedded use, which runs on top of a Linux kernel.

• hulu

The Crunchies 2008