I know i’m posting this a bit late, but it’s better late than never!

Open Web Awards had a total number of 50,000  nominations, 80,000 total votes in the first round, and 90,000 votes in the final round! Basically OWA 2008 was a big success!

Mainstream & Large Scale Social Networks

Winner: Netlog
Runner-up: Platinum Lounge

It was pretty much expected that Netlog will win the final race. The only surprise was that Platinum Lounge made it to second place. A bit weird, but great for Platinum Lounge

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Embeddable Widgets

Winner: Qoof
Runner-up: Sprout

I would have chosen Sprout over Qoof, just for the basic reason that sproutbuilder gives you more flexibility.

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Blog Plugins

Winner: ShareThis
Runner-up: AddThis

WOOT! ShareThis won! This was a very close battle between the two companies and due to the many plugin users.

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Social News

Winner: Help a Reporter Out
Runner-up: Hubdub

Nothing to comment here.

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Social Networking Applications

Winner: Artition
Runner-up: Digsby

IMO the applications differ in way too many points to be able to make comparison between them. Overall, i would prefer Digsby over Artition simply for the features that socialize you.

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Social Bookmarking

Winner: Diigo
Runner-up: ShareThis

DIGG didn’t win!, however Diggo won which is a great website which connects all types of people and where you can really find great sites(unlike on SU).

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Search & Social Search

Winner: Scour
Runner-up: Artiklz

TBH i never heard about Artikz, but i did hear and use Scour almost on a daily basis.

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Sports & Fitness

Winner: Gyminee
Runner-up: FitFiend

Gyminee makes you be fytee! It contains challenges, Workout tracking, Diet monitoring,basically it’s the ultimate workout website.

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Photo Sharing

Winner: ipernity
Runner-up: TinyPic

In this category TinyPic = fail, really. I can’t really imagine howcome it only got to second place and didn’t conquer the top of the pyramid.

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Video Sharing

Winner: ffwd
Runner-up: YouTube

FFWD is the best video sharing network which gathers the best videos on the web, it’s cool that youtube didn’t get the 1st place.

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Start Pages

Winner: Google
Runner-up: iGoogle

What could i comment here? Winner: Google, runner up: (iGoogle) Google. I think it’s impossible for Google to beat himself.

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Places & Events

Winner: Doodle
Runner-up: Muchmor

Not much to comment here either. I only have one thing to say: wasn’t this supposed to be a contest for global audience? Who cares about discovering Canada besides canadians?

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Travel

Winner: SpottedByLocals
Runner-up: GeckoGo

SpottedByLocals is one of the best websites you can use to get guidelines,pictures and stories about cities all around the world! It really deseves first place.

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Music

Winner: Noisetrade
Runner-up: Last.fm

Oh no! Last.fm didn’t get first place :(. IMO nothing can beat Last.fm, especially now that it got accquired by CBS.

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Social Shopping

Winner: Pikaba
Runner-up: A Full Cup

Compare before you buy! pikaba helps you choose from a huge variety of stores and products. Even though you can find great offers, i prefer shopping from trusted websites.

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Fashion

Winner: Coolspotters
Runner-up: Polyvore

I’m not into brands like D&G and silly stuff like that. I prefer buying quality stuff, regardless of brand.

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Celebrity & Gossip

Winner: Oh No They Didn’t
Runner-up: BollyScoops

Among all celebrity blogs i only read WWTDD.com,  i really like the author’s posts and attitude.

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Mobile Applications

Winner: Evernote
Runner-up: MocoSpace

Umm…unfortunately i DON’T own an iphone, so none of the above mentioned Mobile apps apply.

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Dating & Romance

Winner: Zoosk
Runner-up: DateHookup

I find these sites stupid. People go on websites like this to hook up with the most beautiful chick around. YEAH RIGHT!

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Wiki

Winner: Encyclopedia Dramatica
Runner-up: WikiHow

Wikihow should have won. I really like the guides from there and they can really help someone out.

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Politics

Winner: Politics4All
Runner-up: CreateDebate

I’m not really into politics, meaning that i can’t comment here.

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How-to

Winner: A Full Cup
Runner-up: College Cram

Being a college student i have to go with College Cram which is a great resource for students, and even though some would consider using ideas plagiarism, it’s better to have ideas and get a passing grade than not getting a passing grade.

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Environmental

Winner: Ecomii
Runner-up: Gazelle

I like Gazelle more just for the basic fact of their slogan: “Get Cash for your Gadgets”. Basically Gazelle buys your out-of-use gadgets.

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Non-Profit Causes

Winner: Stop Political Calls
Runner-up: SocialVibe

I really like SocialVibe which helps you gather funding for benefical causes. It’s a great thing to help those in need.

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Online Games

Winner: Playfish
Runner-up: Power Pets

I find Power Pets a bit childish, while Playfish gets you to work you brain while playing.

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Niche Social Networks

Winner: The Star Tracker
Runner-up: Wadja

I The Star Tracker applies only for Portughese people, not for everyone, and because of this i wouldn’t have granted it first place.

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There you have it! All the OWA 2008 winners along with my thoughts about the winners and runner-ups. See you at OWA 2009!

I got the mail from Adam yesterday with a link to the blogger’s choice survey, and because i didn’t have time to fill out the survey last night(i was playing dota) i filled it out 5minutes ago.

I filled out all the 26 boxes representing the OWA categories with companies which i consider that should win. The cool part is that Blog partners are allowed to nominate any website, so i didn’t have to stick to the websites present in the public voting round. For example in the Celebrity category i submitted the What Would Tyler Durden Do? blog.

Back to public voting:

The current voting round will end on Monday 7:59 am GMT(11:59 pm PST) so remember wednesday to keep an eye on my blog to find out who the finalists are!

You can notice that the widget has changed in my sidebar(and yes it became smaller) so now it’s your chance to vote for your favorite company. The nominations round was a success, but to the voting round only the most voted companies made it.

Rules

Mashable took extra security measures to avoid cheating and partnered up with Polldaddy to validate all votes.

1. Voting is one vote per Category per person (validated through PollDaddy)

2. Your IP will be logged and you will have to confirm your vote by email.

3. You will get periodical emails regarding the Open Web Awards.

4. The winners will be determined after voting is closed and data is analized.

Timeline

Voting round lasts from Wednesday 9 am PST till Sunday, November 30th 11:59 pm PST.

Cast your vote

You can vote using the widget in my sidebar or in any OWA blog partner’s blog. Also you are able to put up a widget on your website/blog using the Widget Generator where if you wish you can predefine a category or company.

I just got a notification from Adam that  Open Web Awards Round 1 - Nominations Round will end as planned Sunday night at 11:59 pm PST(7:59 am Monday GMT), this means that you still have a bit more than 48 hours at your disposal to get more nominations for your website/company! After 12 AM PST the widgets will automatically close.

Just think how cool would it be to be able to move on to the Second Round - The Online Voting Round where you have realistic chances to make it to the top and into the spotlight!

Till Tuesday evening we will find out who the winners of round 1 are and the Voting widgets for the Second round will go live on Wedesday on all Open Web Awards Partner Blogs.

Good luck to everyone!

What is the Open Web Awards ?

Open Web Awards is the only multilingual international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology organized by Mashable and currently at the 2nd edition. Through an online nominating and voting process, the Open Web Awards recognizes and honors the top achievements in 26 categories.

The competition has 3 rounds which last a predefined amount of time:

Round 1 - Nominations: Start Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Round 2 - Online Voting Round 1: Starts Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Round 3 - Final Round Voting: Starts Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
The winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Nominations Round is on!

If you look at your calendar you will notice that today is November 5th, meaning that the Nominations started.  Each blog partner (we’ll get a bit later to what they do) got their hands on the voting widget. If you take a closer look to my sidebar you will notice it(it’s that big blue thingy).

Nominations:

1. A website can be submitted in as many categories as seen fit.

2. Each person will be able to submit One site per Category.

3. Nominees with the most submissions and/or determined by Mashable will move to the voting round

Voting:

Mashable took extra security measures to avoid cheating and partnered up with Polldaddy to validate all votes.

A) Voting is one vote per Category per person (validated through PollDaddy)

B) Your IP will be logged and you will have to confirm your vote by email.

C) You will get periodical emails regarding the Open Web Awards.

D) The winners will be determined after voting is closed and data is analized.

Winners:

The winners of both People’s choice and Blogger’s Choice sections will be validated by Mashable and Polldady before announcements are made.

The Blog Partners

Last year Mashable had 50 blogs as partners, and this year they’ve almost hit 100. I’m also a blog partner(notice the badge in the sidebar).

A Blog partner’s job is to keep its readers up to date with fresh news regarding Open Web Awards. We(the blog partners) get the updates from Adam and we blog about them in our own style, in the same time keeping the information accurate and precise.

The posts about Open Web Awards will be agregated on the Official News page next to the Updates posted on Mashable and the Twitter Mentions.

If you consider that your website/or a website you like deserves to be nominated head over to the sidebar and submit your nomination! Really, there’s nothing to loose, only to gain.

Initially I planned to make a new logo for ThaSlayer.com v2.0, but being accepted as a partner at Mashable’s Open Web Awards the creation of a new logo was a mandatory thing for me. I couldn’t have had my old “crappy” logo there.

So i’ve put myself together and after about 8-10 sessions of concepts and designing and revising the logo versions i finally settled with the one that i liked the most(hopefully i made a good choice), check below to see the difference:

The main font is one of my favorite fonts - Century Gothic and the “web design” text is using the VAG rounded font. The main word “thaslayer” and the signal type lines have a bit of bewel and emboss along with a mild gradient magic added to them. The bottom line is that there are some fonts which are really worth buying.

Getting back to Mashable’s Open Web Awards: check out how sexy my new logo looks on the Partner showcase page with a small addition, which is the URL to my blog.

I don’t judge people, but quite some of those bloggers who joined the partnership could have supplied a more “pleasant” logo considering that they will be part of a major event.

I’ve made this logo with the hope to evolve a bit thaslayer.com and make it more pleasant for you. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it!