Open Web Awards: Just Who Got My Vote?

Written by Allen Stern - December 13, 2007
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OpenWebAwardsThe Open Web Awards are currently accepting votes in all 13 categories. The Open Web Awards are presented by Mashable and about 800 blog partners (except CN, we are always a bridesmaid, never a bride!). Get out there and vote for your favorites!

The bolded selection in each category below is who received my vote. Many of these decisions were not easy as I have many favorites but I can only select one. Runner-up vote is in parens.

Niche Social Network

CafeMom, CampusBug, CollegeTonight, FilmCrave, GloCals, (OpenSourceFood), OurLikes, Realtorclix, SwitchPlanet, Wish Done

Favorite Mobile Site

Facebook for Blackberry, GetaBuz, Google Maps for Mobile, Mocospace, Tipped.mobi, Trugo, Twitter, Utterz, (WireNode), WishDone

Favorite Social Shopping Site

CrowdStorm, iliketotallyloveit, Jellyfish, Lootist, Recommendr, Skimbit, Smashingdarling, ThisNext, (Woot), Zlio

Favorite Music Site

BandsinTown, GetaBuz, GrooveShark, Gruvr, (iLike), Last.fm, Mixaloo, Pandora, TheHypeMachine, ThePeriodicLabel

Favorite Site To Find Places and Events

BandsinTown, EventBrite, Eventful, Evite, Facebook, Going.com, Meetup, MySpace, (Upcoming), ZVents

Favorite Start Page

DailyWaste, Eskobo, Favoor, iGoogle, Live, (myAOL), myYahoo, Netvibes, PageFlakes, TheWebList

Favorite Video Sharing Site

Break, GoogleVideo, Kaltura, MetaCafe, Mocospace, Trugo, Uber, (Veoh), Vimeo, YouTube

Favorite Photo Sharing Site

DotPhoto, EachDay, Facebook, Flickr, PhotoBucket, Picasa, Slide, (SmugMug), Vois, WebShots

Favorite Sports and Fitness Site

ArmChairGM, Ballhype, ESPN, Local Replay, MediaZone, (Skinnyr), Sportme, SportSnipe, Traineo, YardBarker

Favorite Social Search

Copenda, Eurekester, Facebook, Gleamd, Mahalo, Spokeo, Tipped, Trugo, VibeAgent, Wink (not enough information on these sites to me to vote)

Favorite Application or Widget

BlogRush, Flempo, Flock, Getabuz, iDesktop, Jangl, MindTouch, (Quintura), SezWho, WidgetBucks

Favorite Social News or Social Bookmarking Site

BlinkList, Del.icio.us, Digg, Mixx, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, (StumbleUpon), Wikio, Wish Done

Favorite Mainstream or Large Scale Network

Bebo, (Facebook), LinkedIn, MocoSpace, MySpace, Netlog, OurLikes, Uber, Vois, Wish Done

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Submitted by Paul on December 13, 2007 - 11:55am.
Subject: Thanks for the vote Allen!

Thanks for the vote Allen!

Submitted by Anonymous on December 13, 2007 - 12:17pm.
Subject: voting issues

I noticed that the way the polls are presented, one cannot click to the sites to examine and compare them. The result of this will be that the sites are basically put in a name-recognition popularity contest, which is a shame since there are some excellent new sites competing against large older (well, 2005-06) sites like pandora - there's no contest that way!

Not to be critical, but your votes seem to follow this pattern of brand-recognition - I'm curious, is that basically how you were thinking, or did you actually examine each new site?

Submitted by centernetworks on December 13, 2007 - 5:12pm.
Subject: Vote on Name only?

I'd never vote on name only! That'd be lame. Most of the categories I selected the site(s) I believe is(are) the best. I didn't vote in social search because I don't know enough about the companies to give an honest vote. I do agree that the big name companies have an advantage over the smaller ones.

Same thing happens when magazines rate the top 100 blogs. So I feel your pain :)

Submitted by Alicia on December 13, 2007 - 12:49pm.
Subject: Interesting point Mr/s Anonymous

As one of the nominees under Social Shopping, and a newcomer that has up to now been self-funded, it is going to be near impossible for me to compete with the likes of sites that have been around for longer and have therefore more funding/resources/time-to-get-traffic. Which is understandable, I am under no illusions :)

Nevertheless, I do hope some people approach this voting from the perspective of what site has the best concept and might be the most useful to people on a day to day basis, and on that basis, little ol' Skimbit might have a chance.

Regardless, its just thrilling to be nominated. Thanks for drawing attention to this competition, Allen.

Submitted by Anonymous on December 13, 2007 - 1:27pm.
Subject: re lack of links

Well I will just have to vote for skimbit on principle then!

I do think it becomes very cumbersome when reviewing these polls to copy/paste each domain name to a browser line just to examine the site - that is definitely a inhibitor.

Besides which, a nominated site won't even get any 'link love' from being mentioned on mashable!
One would think that getting nominated to the top ten should at least give the nominees a few more links!

Submitted by centernetworks on December 13, 2007 - 5:23pm.
Subject: re: Alicia

Alicia, I'd be happy to profile your service on CN if you'd like.

You've got to keep plugging away - trust me, when I started CN, my closest friends said not to waste my time - how could I compete with the biggies - I had no name, no rep and no one knew me. Now at least 2 people know me and I make enough to buy the ramen noodles with beef instead of the veggie kind.

And even if you don't win this year, perhaps you can be like Ms. South Carolina - more people know her than who actually won!

 

Submitted by Alicia on December 14, 2007 - 1:09pm.
Subject: Hi Allen Thank you so much

Hi Allen

Thank you so much for the offer, I would love to be profiled on CN (you are one of only 15 blogs I subscribe to, so you definitely rate in my top 15!).
Shoot me an email at alicia@skimbit.com, I have quite an interesting and different story to tell :)

Good advice too... you are right, you just have to keep plugging away... its such a catch-22 situation though... to attract and retain significant traffic you need funds to market and do brilliant designs, but you can't get funds without significant traffic... unless you are a dodgy Facebook app :) sigh...

Submitted by Adam Hirsch on December 13, 2007 - 12:53pm.
Subject: Everyone was invited!

Thanks Allen first for the promotion. Also, FYI, everyone was invited to be a blog partner, we had several posts for invitations to join up with us. Our end # was 30 actually, not 800, although 800 would have been CRAZY! Next time, to become the bride, catch the bouquet!

See you Tuesday!

Submitted by centernetworks on December 13, 2007 - 1:50pm.
Subject: yea yea

You say that now Adam! It's ok tho... next year we will start the Closed Web Awards!

Submitted by iLan on December 13, 2007 - 1:43pm.
Subject: Thanks!

Thanks Allen for having voted for Zlio!

Submitted by Philip Wilkinson on January 7, 2008 - 10:11am.
Subject: Your vote

Zlio - ZLIO - ha :-)

Any chance of expanding your reasoning on all the selections?

Submitted by centernetworks on January 7, 2008 - 10:15am.
Subject: sorry Philip

sorry Philip - let me try to work on that - thanks for the idea

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