Last night we released the finalist names for the Crunchies Awards. Vote here for who you think should win. We’ve set up a site that is pretty self-explanatory, with all of the names of each finalist for every category, along with links to their Websites and Crunchbase profiles where you can learn more about each one before voting. The Crunchies represents the best the Web had to offer in 2008, and you get to help choose who will win. Below is a voter’s guide for two of the major categories to get you started.

Best Overall
Amazon Web Services
Facebook
Android
hulu
Twitter

Best Overall is the big prize. Amazon Web Services makes it as a finalist this year because of the sheer number of startups that are built on top of its cloud computing infrastructure. Facebook won last year, but makes a return as a nominee due to popular demand. Facebook continued to gain massive mainstream adoption in 2008 (with 140 million members now) and launched some major initiatives to extend its social computing platform beyond its site, most notably Facebook Connect (which by itself is a finalist for Best Technology Innovation, going up against Google Friend Connect). But does Facebook deserve to win again?

This was also the year that Google launched its Android phone, bringing the unadulterated Web to mobile devices beyond the iPhone (which won Best Gadget last year for its 2G version). Hulu emerged as a rarity in the Web video world, a popular site with a serious revenue model. And Twitter broke out as the service everyone can’t stop talking (or Tweeting) about. As with any new communication technology, people keep finding novel ways to use Twitter’s public instant-messaging service.

Best New Startup of 2008
Dropbox
FriendFeed
GoodGuide
Tapulous
Topspin Media
Yammer

This category recognizes the best startup to launch publicly in 2008. Dropbox makes it dead-simple to transfer files between computers. It creates a Dropbox folder on your computer that you just drag files into, and then they become available to anyone else with access to that folder. FriendFeed sparked the whole lifestreaming movement this year, and kept adding improvements that makes it easier to filter the Web through the actions of everyone in your various social networks. GoodGuide has created an impressive product database (and iPhone app) that tells you at a glance how green or safe that baby cream or toy is that you just put in your shopping cart.

Tapulous created some of the most popular iPhone apps with Tap Tap Revenge, Tap Tap Dance, and Twinkle (a Twitter client, of course), despite some internal turmoil. Topspin Media, founded by former Yahoo Music chief Ian Rogers, is trying to help bring the music industry into the 21st Century by embracing the Internet as a marketing vehicle instead of a necessary evil. And Yammer is an enterprise version of Twitter which won the top prize at this year’s TechCrunch50.

Here are the finalists for some of the other categories. To see a complete list, go to the Crunchies site and vote for who you think should win. Voting ends January 5.

Best Technology Innovation
Facebook Connect
Google Friend Connect
Google Chrome
Windows Live Mesh
Swype
Yahoo BOSS

Best New Gadget
Android G1
Asus 1000 Netbook Computer
Flip MinoHD video camera
iPhone 3G
SlingCatcher

Best App
Get Satisfaction
Google Reader
Minted
meebo
MySpace Music
Yelp

Best Mobile App
Google Mobile (for iPhone)
Imeem Mobile (for Android)
Pandora Radio (for iPhone)
rolando (for iPhone)
ShopSavvy (for Android)
Ocarina (for iPhone)

Most Likely To Make the World a Better Place
Akoha
Better Place
Causes
CO2Stats
GoodGuide
Kiva

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Ian Rogers, the former GM of Yahoo Music, has finally taken music startup TopSpin Media out of stealth mode. The new company will offer a marketing software platform for music artists to maximize their fanbase and brand exposure.

Rogers, who was the GM of Yahoo Music until April 2008, is one of the few beacons of common sense in a digital music industry seemingly intent on shoving bad products down consumers’ throats. In October 2007 Rogers addressed a number of music excutives where he explained that consumers aren’t willing to adopt inferior products (namely subscription music services).

I won’t let Yahoo! invest any more money in consumer inconvenience. I will tell Yahoo! to give the money they were going to give me to build awesome media applications to Yahoo! Mail or Answers or some other deserving endeavor. I personally don’t have any more time to give and can’t bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value. Life’s too short. I want to delight consumers, not bum them out.

Yahoo subsequently sold its subscription music service to Rhapsody and acquired FoxyTunes, a Firefox-based plugin that lets users control music players from their browser. Then, during the middle of Yahoo Music’s apparent rebirth, Rogers resigned from the company to become CEO of Topspin Media in April 2008.

TopSpin Media describes itself as a technology company (not a “marketing services” company) aimed at helping artists better market themselves. For now TopSpin’s platform is only available to a few select artists, but the company plans to eventually open it to “anyone who would like to make a living from their art”. You can read more about the company on its first blog post here.

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Yahoo Music Vice President Ian Rogers has resigned to join a new stealth music startup called Topspin Media as CEO.

This is a blow to Yahoo – Rogers is one of the few music industry insiders who have a clear vision for what the future of music should be. In 2007 he and former Yahoo Music GM Dave Goldberg told music insiders they must abandon DRM – a year later it was reality. Last year Rogers shocked the industry again when he told industry execs:

I won’t let Yahoo! invest any more money in consumer inconvenience. I will tell Yahoo! to give the money they were going to give me to build awesome media applications to Yahoo! Mail or Answers or some other deserving endeavor. I personally don’t have any more time to give and can’t bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value. Life’s too short. I want to delight consumers, not bum them out.

He had big plans for Yahoo Music and oversaw the sale of their subscription music service to Rhapsody. His team also bought FoxyTunes and released a browser based MP3 player.

I had the feeling that all the positioning, acquisitions and new product releases would culminate in an interesting strategy that would put Yahoo Music, at the very least, at the front of the debate around the future of music. Sadly, he leaves before that strategy could be finalized. That’s great news for Topspin, but terrible news for Yahoo and its users.

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