2007 Crunchies: The Winners

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

1. ChrisW
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

   Hi - I just watched the awards on the live stream. Good try … but maybe next time try actually being a bit more organised. It was very painful to watch.

2. Technicle
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

   All winners seem reasonable except Zoho - who cares.

3. Krunch
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 9:37 pm

   Eartmine demo of their product is really nice.

4. allen stern
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

   color commentary of the entire event:
   http://www.centernetworks.com/.....live-notes

5. Will Johnston
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 10:02 pm

   Glad to see the Tesla Motors award, I’m a big fan of their work, hope the event went well.

6. sodapop
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 10:05 pm

   I am missing something. Whats unique about Facebook. Its the flavor or the month, that’s it.

7. How To Give Head College
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

   All of them are deserving in my opinion.

   http://howtogivehead.wordpress.com

8. Jon
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

   I think the call on Twitter for best mobile start-up was a silly call… how much revenue are they making? Secondly, oh that’s right in the U.S revenue doesn’t matter if you’re start-up!

9. Hakan Celik
   

   January 18th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

   i wwatched it from online, it was very good. and also i think the best part is Richter Scales’ show

10. techmine
    

    January 18th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    Mobile startup - Twitter. Really?? TC are big fans of twitter and thats the only place I read about them.

11. diamondrings411.com
    

    January 18th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    facebook rocks…..

    john
    diamondrings411.com

12. James
    

    January 18th, 2008 at 11:40 pm

    My only beef with the awards is that most of the so-called “startups” aren’t really startups. Some are over a couple years old…

    I was expecting something more fresh and less predictable, sorry :(.

    I will give the crunchies the benefit of the doubt…there is always next year.

13. chrisw
    

    January 18th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    @James

    I agree - I was expecting something a little more interesting - I thought that awards to companies like FaceBook reeked of the essence of pandering to the big guys. Add that to the fact that they are not really a start-up (how many start-ups do you know of who have (a) been around for a few years, and (b) have raised over $300 million?) Don’t get me wrong - I’m not one of those “I hate FaceBook” people - but I was hoping for a bit more enlightenment from the first Crunchies.

    The orgainisers of the awards night could learn a thing or two about hosting an event like this - or maybe next time hire an event management company. With a little planning the event could have been a lot better (said the guy who sat at home and watched it live online).

    I guess there is always next year.

14. chrisw
    

    January 18th, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    @James

    I agree - I was expecting something a little more interesting - I thought that awards to companies like FaceBook reeked of the essence of pandering to the big guys. Add that to the fact that they are not really a start-up (how many start-ups do you know of who have (a) been around for a few years, and (b) have raised over $300 million?) Don’t get me wrong - I’m not one of those “I hate FaceBook” people - but I was hoping for a bit more enlightenment from the first Crunchies.

    The organizer’s of the awards night could learn a thing or two about hosting an event like this - or maybe next time hire an event management company. With a little planning the event could have been a lot better (said the guy who sat at home and watched it live online).

    I guess there is always next year.

15. Miley Cyrus
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:06 am

    Every single company listed above is made with a stroke of genius. Well deserved, indeed!

16. Carlos
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:07 am

    Michael,

    Next time u should award start ups who used very little cash and their owners had to be super creative and not award companies with few hundrend million backing, they do not have to be so smart how to use this much money

17. anon
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:07 am

    How can Hulu win? It is in private beta.

    “Hulu put television online.” - yeah, maybe in 2009

18. Duncan Riley
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:11 am

    James
    fair call to a point, but the nomination and voting was done by the readers of TC and the other 3 blogs, I’m sure I could find myself arguing with a couple of results myself but who am I to argue with the voice of others

    Carlos
    good idea. There was a “new” startup category though, but it would be nice to see more encouragement for newer, smaller startups

19. Peldi
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:11 am

    it’s long tail, not long tale in this case. no need to publish, just fix the post

20. twit?
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:29 am

    twitter is just micro-blogging … only to increase self importance.

21. Nick
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:48 am

    I always get a little chuckle out of the Hulu name. It reads as ”crazy” in finnish.

22. chrisw
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:57 am

    Hey Duncan,

    What are you doing blogging when you should be at the party getting seriously drunk?

23. Hulu
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 1:48 am

    WTF

    We won this award because we have OUR fox news media x employee running TC now, it’s so obvious… dude….

24. Hulu
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 1:50 am

    The real award for best video site should go to veoh, or stage6.

    They are the real winners.

    come on….

25. That's it?
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 2:01 am

    Yawn…

26. Duncan Riley
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 3:04 am

    chrisw (#23)
    I had to bring a pile of awards up so I never had a drink while I was up there. Trust me when I say that it would have been a lot easier if I’d had that opportunity

    Hulu (24/25)
    the votes went through some pretty severe fraud filters…and yes, some categories had some serious attempts at fraud. I won’t say with 100% certainty, but we’re fairly confident that the winners were fair and square voting wise.

27. Kevin
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 3:04 am

    Nice to see that Digg, Stumble upon, Facebook, Zoho, Techmeme, Smugmug…rockes…

    Few disappointments… Yelp, Imeem, 37Signal, LinkedIn ;(

28. web hosting server
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 3:31 am

    All seems deserve for the award, however I’ve not find flickr listed there?

29. Evergreen
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 4:28 am

    Techcrunch has some “special” arrangement with Zoho. Zoho is just eye-candy without any serious functionality.

    Has anyone created an important document/spreadsheet using Zoho?

    Oh yes, I remember…Zoho is one the Techcrunch sponsors.

30. Yuri Ammosov
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 4:39 am

    Zuckerberg?
    Tesla??

    Ohmigod…

31. Gavin
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    First of all, I think we should thank TC and those involved fr coming up with this, great idea. It was their first event, and obviously things will run more smoothly next time. I think you had to many “start-ups” on there who really don’t qualify (ie FaceBook, Zoho). Better selection next time please. But on the whole a good job.

32. ITrush
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 7:13 am

    A big round of applause… Congratulations!

    nhick
    http://www.itrush.com

33. Ray Burt
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 7:18 am

    Looking at the winners, looks like a popularity award show.

34. Rob
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 7:49 am

    Are you kidding me. … Mark Zuckerberg may be the biggest Douche Bag i have ever seen in my entire life…. if the credentials for best startup founder is purely based on the success.. ok… i can live with that, but because he may be the lamest, smuggest and robotic person i have ever seen: there is no way he can win. I have never met one person who actually likes him!!!!!

35. GreasyGuide
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 7:56 am

    Wow this is the most boring/predictable list of winners ever. All of these companies have been out of a long time and seems to be that TC is only about what’s “hot” right now as apposed to what’s next. Oh well…TechCrucnch gets worse and worse the more I read it.

36. S.P. Gass
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 9:06 am

    What is new or better about Zazzle vs CafePress which has been around awhile?

37. Jay
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 9:24 am

    *Yawn*

    You give out awards? To web sites?! BRILLIANT.

38. Wil Schroter
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 9:26 am

    finally, a story about facebook.. i was hoping someone would take notice of the second most important social network.

39. Hulu Me winner, me got ceo
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 9:52 am

    €27

    “the votes went through some pretty severe fraud filters…and yes, some categories had some serious attempts at fraud. I won’t say with 100% certainty, but we’re fairly confident that the winners were fair and square voting wise.”

    yea I’m well sure it was ” fair and square ” btw, what lodge do you belong? or “how old is your mother”….

    Did you post that new ritual on youporn yet?

    Masons rule the day here folks , move along nothing out of the ordinary.

    Oh and don’t patronize me, hulu was not voted for by the masses. they (masses) are all using veoh and stage6 - brother.

40. Maximiliano De Muro
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 10:31 am

    One Laptop per child adds more value to the future than all other winners, together.

    We’re not the future. Those companies are not the future. All the childrens around the world, in any level, are the future of this world.

    Wow, i’m feeling like Obama!

41. gyuszi bacsi
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 10:43 am

    I wonder, when the Tesla Roadster will be sold to the public

    goes like hell, the acceleration is much better then other cars with gasoline engines

42. Steel
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 11:51 am

    For someone who has been around a very long time, I see the value of this, for MA and the good old boy network. Scratching each other’s back and lining each other pockets with cross board members is nothing new. These awards were more about the ‘ boys ‘ keeping and expanding their clout and NOT about the companies. FB gets a hell of a lot of press on TC; and, many of the others as well. This is how it all works. Jut being part of this in crowd is a huge benefit. If not now, then down the road. They’re very careful not to burn bridges. Funny production but in the real scheme of business, useless.

43. khang tran
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    smugmug for best design? are you kidding me?

44. Chris
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    So a company wins because the TC readers use it because TC writes about it again and again. It’s a shame these awards (twitter) have no relation to what the non-techie community at large is actually using on the web.

    @28: I agree, Yelp and LinkedIn at least deserved these more, but because they aren’t as “techie” as twitter, and far less annoying, they get looked over.

45. HonestMall.com
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    positive: great job pulling together such a big show and project. impressive work Arrington and team.

    negative: i have to re-iterate khang tran’s (#44) statement, how does smugmug take the award for best design? that makes no sense at all. they should win the award for “non VC startup” not for best design.

    but again, props to the whole team for creating an awards show around the web. not an easy feat.

46. matt
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    Given Automattic as its subject, “powers the long tale” has a clever ring to it. Intentional or otherwise, I request you leave as-is.

47. charlie
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    The only thing on your list I use or care about is smug mug… IT is.

48. ChrisW
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    @43 khang tran

    Have you actually used SmugMug or even visited their web site? Design isn’t just about a nice logo and flashy graphics - it’s actually more about usability and meeting the users expectations. If you take the time to poke around their web ste you’ll certainly see what I mean. SmugMug were very deserving of the award for Best Design. Take another look.

49. Please explain
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Can you guys define the term “startup” in reference to these awards?

    Is it a within a certain funding boundary?

    Does it depend on the amount of time the company has been around?

    Does it have anything to do with the marketshare said company has gained since inception (or vs their competitors/established players)?

    It just kind of seems that these awards were given to Internet related companies regardless of the items I mentioned above.

50. Regarding Zuckerberg
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

    Echoing #34/Rob, the selection of Zuck as “Best Startup Founder” is not only strange, but just plain wrong.

    What constitutes “best”?

    Does he have incredible business sense, creating a revolutionary industry model like Bill Gates did with DOS/Windows?

    Does he inspire rabid passion, like Steve Jobs does?

    Did he reinvigorate the notion of a company standing for a higher principle, as Larry and Sergey did with Don’t Be Evil?

    No’s all the way down. Instead, we have a company that, YES, does have an extremely strong and fast-growing userbase, but based only on the basic premise of the service, and not due to deft maneuvers by the Founder. In fact, Facebook is growing rapidly DESPITE the actions of MarkZ, including Beacon and his arrogant style.

    His greatest assets are 1) he holds the title of CEO, and 2) he’s young. The latter, especially, seems to blind everyone from reason.

51. ChrisW
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    @50 Regarding Zuckerberg

    I couldn’t agree more. “In fact, Facebook is growing rapidly DESPITE the actions of MarkZ, including Beacon and his arrogant style.” sums it up perfectly.

52. khang tran
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    @48 chrisw

    the dixie chicks are a grammy-winning act, but i really don’t like them. does that mean i don’t understand music? you really shouldn’t attribute someone’s difference in opinion to a lack of understanding on a particular subject matter; it’s quite insulting.

    clearly you think smugmug is deserving of this award, but given the vast universe of “startups” out there, i have a really hard time choosing smugmug as the ambassador for great design. it’s certainly not the first site that comes to mind for me, and my wager is that polling “design” professionals would yield a very different result.

    of course, this is techcrunch’s show so they (and the techcrunch audience) can say what they want. this is just one man’s opinion. i’m just very surprised.

53. ChrisW
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

    @khang tran

    Sorry if I offended you - not my intention. Who would you have chosen for that category instead? And why?

54. frank smith
    

    January 19th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

    super article, you made one mistake though at stumple upon, (the gew should be grew) , and you should have put http://www.opentopix.com there …..

    Best use of viral marketing: StumbleUpon

    StumbleUpon’s service lets users bookmark and discover new sites they love. With only a $1.5 million investment in 2005, StumbleUpon gew to over 4 million Stumblers and was bought by eBay in 2007 for $75 million

55. Bahador
    

    January 20th, 2008 at 3:52 am

    Viva Netvibes! I’m proud of being a 15 months user of you

56. Anonymous Coward
    

    January 20th, 2008 at 10:01 am

    Facebook an “innovative” startup? I can say it, and so can you:

    OVERHYPED.

57. Ravenii
    

    January 20th, 2008 at 10:17 am

    It was Super Cool, I want a crunchie!

58. Smugmug is the best
    

    January 20th, 2008 at 11:24 am

    I’ve tried trial version of about a half-dozen photo sharing/storage sites and SMUGMUG is by far the best. There are numerous reasons why I LOVE SMUGMUG which I listed below. The age old saying is you get what you paid for. In the crowded field of online photo sharing services, SMUGMUG has been everything I ever needed and then some.

    If you want to try out the service free for 14-days and get $5 off a new membership, use this link:
    http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=Tm1HMVMcu3q0k

    Hey, it’s free, why not try it?

    Things I love about Smugmug and why I chose it over other competing services:
    • They allow you to try the service free for 14 days. You can try EVERY feature they offer without any restrictions
    • Your photos are safe and secure. They keep 4 backup copies of each photo in 3 states so you’ll always have access to them
    • You can lock galleries with passwords to keep them private
    • Smugmug doesn’t send you SPAM and there are NO ADS on the site
    • You can share your photos with friends & family without them having to register with Smugmug
    • A+ customer service. It’s fast, friendly, and professional
    • Basic account offers UNLIMITED storage
    • Prints can be ordered right from Smugmug. No need to get them ordered with a different company
    • Comments, tags, keywords, and compatibility with blogs and forums - very convenient!
    • Video clips are allowed with a Power User account
    • Very helpful and friendly forum called “Digital Grin” who can answer just about any photo related question you can think of
    • The company is FAMILY OWNED and not run by some internet conglomerate like Yahoo or Kodak
    • Company has always been profitable so there’s no risk of them going out of business then you lose all your files

59. Sarah Carr
    

    January 20th, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    Thanks for the results Duncan! I am still bummed Twitter didn’t win for best new startup…but in my mind they’re always #1!

60. Mr. Quotes
    

    January 20th, 2008 at 9:27 pm

    Congratulations to all winners - especially to Automattic
    You peopel really rock.

61. kalivd
    

    January 20th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

    Well a nice post with many interesting web applications which are really useful in a way or other, I would like to suggest a Free online office suite called eDeskOnline which is a integrated online office with Accounting and various other features with a very easy user interface, infact i had not seen such a product before, I think you guys should just check with the demo link below
    eDeskOnline - Free Online Office suite

62. I Am Not Posting To Spam My Blog
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 4:58 am

    No “Most unsubtle spamming in TechCrunch comments” category?

63. The Simon George fund
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 8:05 am

    Best Muncher: http://simongeorgeinc.googlepages.com !

64. Bali
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:45 am

    I’ve tried trial version of about a half-dozen photo sharing/storage sites and SMUGMUG is by far the best

65. Netmark
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 10:21 am

    This is a great list!. There are several names I use every day. I use digg every day so is wordpress. Smugmug hosts my photo album. Although Flickr is flying high and there are much less users in smugmug than Flickr, but smugmug offers so many nice themes. Stumbleupon is nice. It is beyond discoving new websites, it is a nice community too. The wordpress spam killer is absolute wonderful, i tried several others, none is as good as Akismet!

66. 6th Sense
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 11:27 am

    Very disappointing list. And not just because we weren’t recognized

67. Joel
    

    January 21st, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Kind of a shame that all the awards were so obvious. We all know that facebook, hulu, etc are good websites…it would be nice to see blog awards that recognize the little to mid size companies that are still “startups”.

68. Dominika
    

    January 23rd, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    I love meebo. its the best aim to use without actually downloading it!

69. mmduva
    

    January 24th, 2008 at 8:45 am

    i went to chat

70. mmduva
    

    January 24th, 2008 at 8:47 am

    with girl

71. Bali
    

    January 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am

    StumbleUpon’s service lets users bookmark and discover new sites they love.

72. catsr4u
    

    January 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm

    Lol. ‘The Chrunchies’. That’s a funny name!

73. Cheryl's Desk
    

    February 10th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    I always look at any best-of list with a judgemental eye. While I have an issue with several of the ones selected this year I’m not so sure I could have selected a better list. The true test for any best-of list is how many of them will be around a year from now.