The 2008 Crunchies is the second annual competition and award ceremony to recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year.

Zigtag


ZigTag, a social bookmarking tool that has been in the works for years, has finally launched to the public. Competing with services like Delicious and Ma.gnolia, ZigTag categorizes bookmarks through the use of tags and allows users to share those bookmarks with friends. To set itself apart, ZigTag claims its service is "intelligent" and uses semantic technology to understand the meaning of tags. In essence, ZigTag tags have stated definitions, which the company uses to categorize bookmarks more effectively. ZigTag is available upon registration.

Cisco starting a push into home electronics

Cisco Systems, the dominant provider of the digital pipes that run the Internet, is making a big play in digital entertainment.

Ringful, is a start-up that focuses on connecting the Web to mobile phones.

OLPC

The OLPC Foundation's mission is to stimulate local grassroots initiatives designed to enhance and sustain over time the effectiveness of laptops as learning tools for children living in lesser-developed countries.

MSearchGroove



MSearchGroove is a premiere knowledge portal providing analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising, social media and all things digital at the intersection of content and context.

Global sales of Android-handsets to top 5-8 million units in 2009

Most branded handset vendors as well as vendors in China and Japan are all planning to launch Android-powered mobile phones in 2009, reports Taiwanese internet publication Digitimes.

Razorfish and Viral Distribution Metrics

Razorfish filed a patent to measure social media distribution. The patent, which is marketed as a way to measure social influence, is really more about providing metrics for how social media content/widgets/applications virally distribute.

Some Tips On How To Build an Offline Network

In anything, as well as social media, you’re only as good as your plan.

Green:Net

Green:Net is a one-day conference examining how the tools created in the Internet, computing and IT revolutions will be crucial for fighting climate change.

Social Media 2009 Predictions

Social Media 2009

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Management Business social media 2009

Turning Page, E-Books Start to Take Hold

Could book lovers finally be willing to switch from paper to pixels?

TED 2009 Lineup


With just over 40 days to go till TED 2009, which promises to be the best ever. At a time of deep uncertainty about the world's future, and people hungry for change, the Ted 2009 event promises to provide a few days and hear voices of insight, brilliance, passion and wisdom.

The Hottest Tech Developments of 2009


Watch for Microsoft's Windows 7; Apple's Snow Leopard; and Motorola and other smartphones running Google's Android software

The Net Generation Takes the Lead

Enabled by the Web and digital technology, the Net Generation is transforming media, politics, and culture. Will older generations stand in the way?

Google Maps Mashup Combines Your Address, Nuclear Blast

Nuclear weapons are often measured in kilotons, but that doesn't really tell the story of a weapon's destructive power.

Scrapplet



Perhaps you're on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and FriendFeed. You've got accounts on Flickr, Photobucket, YouTube, Yahoo, and Google. You have a personal website, a business website, several blogs, and more...or maybe you're just getting started...

Scrapplet brings it all together and makes it easy to turn your distributed web presence into a single virtual place.

And best of all, it's free!

Apple stock should shine in 2009

Whether you should have faith in the shares depends on whether you bought AAPL at about $200 last year, or are contemplating it now at around $85.

Notify.me


Lets you get real-time notifications about information you specify. Track items on craigslist, job postings, breaking news stories and much more. Choose to have notifications delivered to IM, SMS, email, or desktop application.

Center'd



Want to make planning easier? From basic activities like figuring out what to do this weekend to more complex plans like organizing a school event that requires volunteers, Center'd provides tools to help. You can connect to people you know, discover new places in different neighborhoods, and plan any event or activity.

ShoutEm



A free platform where you can easily start a co-branded micro-blogging social networking service. Features range from simple Twitter-like text micro-blogging to more advanced features: posting attachments, photos, comments, or even a private network for your company.

One Juicer

This iPhone Apps monitoring service saves you time and frustration by monitoring keywords for Apps you are interested in at the iTunes Store. One Juicer notifies you of the latest iPhone Apps based on your choice of keywords via email.

Clutershot

A free-for-all site that allows anyone to sell their photos and allows anyone to buy them. Clutershot allows you to upload pretty much any of your photos and sell them at the price you want. They take 12% of the entire sale per sale and buyers get them immediately, royalty free.

myExperiment



A web service to find, use and share scientific workflows and other files, and to build communities.

BufferMe

BufferMe is a video streaming service that allows users to watch videos from a different approach. It provides faster results than regular streaming websites; its much more intuitive design allows users to have a different and better experience watching their favorite online videos.

ArtistData

Enables musicians to update their information on multiple sites (MySpace, Virb, PureVolume, Jamebase, last.fm, etc) with a single mouse click.

Dennis vanEngelsdorp: Where have the bees gone?

Bees are dying in droves. Why? Leading apiarist Dennis vanEngelsdorp looks at the gentle, misunderstood creature's important place in nature and the mystery behind its alarming disappearance.

Adamo coming in February?


Reports in the last day or so have offered up some tidbits about an "Adamo" laptop purportedly in the works at Dell.

25 Year Timeline of Mac: From Boxy Beige to Silver Sleek

Here's what's amazing about the Mac as it turns 25, a number that in computer years is just about a googolplex: It can look forward. The Mac's original competition—the green-phosphorus-screened stuff made by RadioShack, DEC, and then-big kahuna IBM—now inhabit landfills, both physically and psychically. Yet the Macintosh thrives...



Making Apple's '1984' commercial: Ridley Scott Interview

Digital Mapmaking

How are you able to see street level images? Here's are it works.

How Cloud Computing Works

So what us cloud computing and how does it work? Read on.

Apple iTunes vs Amazon MP3 - Amazon wins

Has Apple's iTunes Music Store had its day? Despite rumors that Apple would announce a DRM-free iTunes operation yesterday, nothing of the sort actually occurred. And a new review claims that Amazon MP3 is much, much better.

Why Is Steve Jobs Skipping MacWorld?

So why is Steve not presenting at the Macworld Conference?

Apple at Expo: What went wrong?

World Future Energy Summit 2009



Top government officials, heads of global organisations, leading environmentalists and the largest international investors are meeting once again at the World Future Energy Summit, 19-21 January 2009, Abu Dhabi to discuss, debate and plan the world's future energy.

The Summit is the platform for policy decision making, investment and high-level business deals. This is your opportunity to attend and become a part of an evolving industry with unlimited opportunity.

Join the Social Media Revolution

Online social networking is becoming an essential tool for companies to engage, listen to, and interact with customers and potential customers in ways that have never before been possible. The challenge for businesses is how to create and maintain communities that deliver measurable business value.

Social Media Today LLC helps global organizations create purpose-built B2B social communities designed to achieve specific, measurable corporate goals by engaging exactly the customers and prospects you most want to reach.

Going Social Now

Going Social Now covers the social media space - from the businesses and the applications to the users, behavioral patterns and cultural affects.

MobileMe News

If you're a mac user [like me] and want to keep up on the latest news regarding MobileMe, go to their MobileMe News letter.

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks

There are many more oblique, clever, and lesser-known search recipes and operators that work from that unassuming little input box. Dozens of Google search guides detail the tips you already know, but here obscure Google web search tricks.

YouTube: Captions and Subtitles

The Caption feature allows you to give viewers a deeper understanding of your video. Adding captions and subtitles makes your videos more accessible to people who can't follow along with the audio—either because they speak a different language, or because they are deaf or hard of hearing.

SlideRocket, The Best Online Presentation Software




SlideRocket is a revolutionary new approach to presentations. It’s the only presentation software that allows you to create stunning presentations, manage them intelligently, share them securely and then measure the results.

SlideRocket goes beyond traditional presentation tools by harnessing the power of the Internet and making everything available to you in an integrated and intuitive online interface. SlideRocket is provided in a software-as-a-service model starting at free.

SlideRocket embraces collaboration with a number of features that make it easy for you to work in sync with your colleagues.

SlideRocket also offers the most advanced security available for presentations. Manage user and object permissions and define how and when your presentations can be viewed, printed and shared.

Kiss Your Phone Bill Good-bye

Disruptors: Silicon Valley startup Ooma wants to help you connect your home electronics for cheap - starting with your phone.

Semantic Web

The "semantic web" could make the Internet more interactive and rewarding.

StockTwits nails stockpicking on Twitter

StockTwits, a two month-old site that lets you track messages on micro-blogging service Twitter about public company stock performance, has closed a first round of venture funding. The investors, all individuals, are a wide range of Twitter-loving finance types who have become addicted to the service.

StockTwits is an open, community-powered idea and information service for investments. Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards. The service takes financial related data - using Twitter as the content production platform - and structures it by stock, user, reputation, etc.

Stickam API Lets You Build Your Own Live Video Site



Stickam, a live video streaming service that competes with the likes of Justin.tv and Ustream.tv, is releasing a new API that effectively allows anyone to build their own streaming video startup with a minimal amount of effort. The service is normally pay-as-you-go, but the first 100 users to sign up will be able to try it out for free.

Can Microsoft makes its future mobile?

You want a phone that can do it all? Internet, music, photos, films, documents, texting, instant messaging, diary, contacts and ... err ... phone calls?

Then a smartphone is right for you. But as the market for high-end mobiles gets ever more crowded, which should you pick?

Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World


Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds. An they are leaving a lot of marketers behind.

Taking the Social Networking Plunge

As the job market continues to sour, it is important to take advantage of all available tools to keep up with your personal and professional network. if you’ve been joining social networking sites, Here are a few things to think about as you take the plunge or take your social networking to the next level.

World Map of Social Networks Around The World

This world map courtesy Oxyweb should help you visualize the popularity of various social networks across different parts of the globe.

Aggregate Your Social Networks with Eventbox



Dealing with social media and networking is a chore. There’s so much going on in too many different places, and keeping track of all that information is hard enough; managing your own is another story. EventBox, a beta application for Mac OS X Leopard, is designed with this problem in mind. The purpose of EventBox is to aggregate the various social networks you utilize in one handy desktop application, much like feed readers did for all the sites you frequent.

No keyboards in the future?

A survey predicts that by 2012 keyboards will become "quaint relics."

6 Ways to Convert a PDF to a JPG image

The solution begs the question – why convert a PDF document to a JPG image? The answer lies in the way we view PDF documents.

Even Apple is now feeling the pinch

Apple, which has outpaced the overall personal computer market this year despite its strategy of eschewing discounts, showed its first signs of weakness in November.

Google Chrome is no longer beta


The Web giant's recently launched browser is now officially ready for the public. Plus: How to make sure you get the new build.

Learn more about Chrome.

Yes, Even Google Is Getting Frugal

Even internet superstars fall to earth eventually. While recent reports of layoffs and other cost-cutting measures at Google have been greatly exaggerated, the search giant's culture of unbridled spending is finally coming to a halt.

You Do Have Other Options Besides Google

If you're using a major search engine to find information on the Web, you're missing out on some of the best search experiences. With the help of a metasearch engine--a service that grabs results from multiple search engines--you'll not only find relevant results quickly, but you might be able to kick that Google habit.

Cisco Launches New Video Initiative

The online video revolution has begun, and Cisco Systems says it has designed a new strategy complete with new products to help its customers meet the demand.

The Storm gets negative buzz

Though Verizon says the Storm is its fastest selling handset yet, the touchscreen phone is also generating more negative buzz than any BlackBerry before.

iPhone Grabs 16.6% of Global Smartphone Market

Apple's iPhone is stealing market share from dominant smartphone makers like Nokia and Palm.

Some tips on how to get the most out of Google Maps



Google Maps has become the standard mapping utility for everything from getting directions and finding nearby food options to viewing the surface of the moon. Are you getting the most out of your Google Maps experience? Keep reading to get some helpful hints on how to maximize (or minimize) all your mapping desires.

Do you Poken?


A Poken is a small gadget you can keep on your key chain. When touching someone else’s Poken you automatically exchange ‘business cards’ and links to your social network profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook. Is this the future of social networking?

Boxee gets support for Netflix streaming

Boxee is releasing on Thursday a new version of its media center software that adds support for Netflix Watch Instantly streaming movies.

Poorer Nations Go Online on Cellphones

Using cellphones to surf the Internet is booming in emerging markets, showing how countries with poor fixed-line telecommunications have become important drivers of growth for mobile-technology companies.

Google Friend Connect

Google, likely in reaction to the official rollout of Facebook Connect, has opened up its universal log-in system, Google Friend Connect.

PeopleBrowser

PeopleBrowsr is a new service that can show you all your activity streams from various social sites and nanoblogs, like Twitter and Friendfeed. It also adds additional features to Twitter, such as grouping your contacts.

Mobile Optimized Websites, More Harm Than Good?

Many websites automatically redirect iPhones to mobile versions of their sites. Many of these sites often deliver limited content, wasting space, and eliminate zooming.

Apple: 300 million iPhone apps downloaded

On Friday, Dec. 5th, Apple announced that over 300 million iPhone apps have been downloaded from its App Store.

Meraki Releases World’s First Solar-Powered WiFi Device

Meraki’s groundbreaking energy-independent device is powered by a single solar panel and solar-charged battery.

Out of thin air

As Zimbabwe battles a cholera epidemic that has already killed hundreds, one company thinks it may have found a potential solution to the world water crisis.

The Perfect Storm

Faced with the perfect storm of a bleak market and a boom in ultra-budget portables, Apple is believed by some to be readying its own take on the netbook for the first half of 2009.

Google's Gatekeepers



Today the Web might seem like a free-speech panacea: it has given anyone with Internet access the potential to reach a global audience. But though technology enthusiasts often celebrate the raucous explosion of Web speech, there is less focus on how the Internet is actually regulated, and by whom.

Customize Twitter background with TwitBacks

People with a good looking custom Twitter background have been the envy of ordinary Twitter users, without the Photoshop skills to make their own. TwitBacks is looking to make those same rich profiles available to everyone. It only took me a few minutes to pimp out my Twitter profile with my very own custom background.

Multi-touch coming for iMacs?

Apple has been quite clear about the multi-touch in desktop and notebook computers – this feature will not be available in the near term. However, contrary to the public statement, we received word that Apple may be working on a multi-touch project due for a Macworld introduction in January 2009.

The Convergence of Film and Gaming

I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Be a movie critic

Highbrow film company The Criterion Collection has launched Criterion.com, an "online cinematheque" for people who want to watch movies, delve into some editorial content, and socialize with other fans.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the new site is the fact that you can rent many Criterion films (a melange of old and newish, domestic and foreign) for $5 per stream, and that $5 will be deducted if you then choose to purchase the flick on DVD. 

SearchWiki

SearchWiki lets you customize your Google Web Search results. You can rank, remove and add notes to any result page and see those tailored results anytime you do that search while you're logged in to your Google Account.

Google Mobile App for iPhone

Mike LeBeau of the Google mobile team gives an overview of the new Google Mobile App for iPhone. The App lets you speak your queries without pushing any buttons, and also lets you do local searches without specifying your location.

Future Trends 09

Learn to track the trends that matter most and use them to impact your business- before your competition does. Discover how to put innovation at the forefront and drive the value of your brand. Go beyond “brainfood” and bring the trends to life by making it relevant to your business.

Travel planning service Yapta has a cool new feature for registered users that lets you track price drops or award seats based on your frequent-flier mileage. It'll keep an eye out for deals that match how many miles you have saved up, and give you an alert when they're up for grabs. When used properly this system could net you free or heavily discounted tickets alongside letting you know about potential price drops.

Here's an oldie but a goodie. Feed Rinse is a super simple and user-friendly way to tweak RSS feeds before subscribing to them in your favorite reader tool.

With it you can pick which authors or keywords you want to exclude, giving you complete control over what ends up filling your feed reader. For example, on Webware's RSS feed you could very quickly choose to only get posts about Google (which is possible on our main site using tags), or a handful of keywords at the same time.

Yahoo CEO Yang to step down


Co-founder Jerry Yang will step back as soon as a successor is found for the CEO role.

Google's voice search: Why on iPhone, not Android?

Google plans to release a groundbreaking mobile application that allows users to say a search query into their phone and have it transcribed and returned as a Web search. Surprisingly, the technology won't be exclusive to T-Mobile's G1 phone, the first commercial device to run Google's Android operating system. It's only going to be available on Apple's iPhone at first.

Cisco's Emerging Markets Gambit


The IT giant is strategizing with governments from Saudi Arabia to South America on their technological futures—hoping to score mega-contracts.

Why Mashups Matter

Here's a PDF provided by IBM covering the uses and benefits of mashups and widgets.

Taking Control of Your Government via 17 Killer Mashups

Government is increasingly putting much of its public records online, creating opportunities for developers to build useful applications for citizens. From being alerted to neighborhood crime to finding the best mass transit routes, these mashups are helping solve everyday problems.

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targeting (BT) is an advertising methodology in which an advertiser’s creative is shown to users based on the sites they visit and/or what the user does on those sites.

Mozilla has put out a road map proposal for the next version of Ubiquity, the company's user interface project that aims to mash up user-controlled shortcuts with information from the Web. Besides the promise of an interface overhaul, the plan's big hope is to integrate Ubiquity with Mozilla's Firefox and Thunderbird products, along with user desktops.

Is the Sun finally setting?


With its open-source efforts slow to pay off and the broader economy crumbling, CEO Jonathan Schwartz responds to a charge that Sun has become "toxic."

Yahoo coming up with a new interface



Yahoo is hoping a new interface will help give it some life and make it easier for users to find information faster.

Google launches Gmail Chat


I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity.