Nominate your favorite start-up for a Crunchie

Earlier this week, the nomination process for the 2007 Crunchies began. Together with GigaOm, Read/Write Web, and VentureBeat, TechCrunch has unveiled a new blog dedicated to this first annual award ceremony. The 2007 Crunchies will recognize promising start-ups and this year’s most compelling internet and technology innovations.

TechCrunch and its fellow blog networks have opened up the nomination forum to the entire internet community, encouraging anyone with an opinion to vote for their favorite product or company in a variety of award categories. For example, there will be an award for the best video site, the best consumer start-up, the company with the best use of viral marketing, the best start-up founder, and so on and so forth.

No companies are excluded from the competition, and only one award (for the best international start-up) has geographic limitations. A single company can be nominated for and win multiple awards, but the achievements that qualify the nominees for these awards must be made within the 2007 calendar year. No nomination fees apply, but each voter is limited to one nomination submission per category.

According to the rules stated on the site, “The Crunchies Committee will select the top five nominated companies per award category based on the quantity, quality and breadth of submissions received.” This sounds a little vague to me, and I’m hoping that the committee won’t exert any bias in their decision making, but I sort of like the idea that sheer numbers may not determine all of the nominations.

Between now and Wednesday, December 12, you can nominate your favorite companies and products for a Crunchie. If you are part of an organization that you believe deserves recognition for achievements made in 2007, you can post a badge on your site encouraging users to nominate and vote for you. Find all available badges here.

After the initial nominations, users can submit one ballot per day to be counted toward the final vote. Award winners will be determined based on popular votes received through website voting up until the middle of January. Finalists, event sponsors, and select members of the press will be invited to the award ceremony in San Francisco, which is scheduled to be held on Friday, January 18.

It’s difficult to say how this first award ceremony will play out before the nominees are announced, but I’m hoping for at least a few surprise entries (or underdogs) on the final ballot. The general public has most of the power when it comes to determining the nominees and the winners, and with TechCrunch headlining the event, nominated companies are sure to net some serious publicity and website traffic.

If you know of a few companies that have gone unnoticed this year, submit their names here. I suppose that better-known companies may snag a few (or most) of the Crunchies, but if you’re like me, you’re hoping that the final ballot will include a little diversity. It would feel too redundant if all we saw on the ballot were names of companies that have been making headlines all year long. You probably won’t score your favorite start-up a Crunchie all on your own, but who knows, a glowing nomination from you may get them some of the press that they deserve.

To read more about the 2007 Crunchies from the event co-hosts themselves, take a look at these recent posts at GigaOm, Read/Write Web, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 and is filed under Tech companies, Tech events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.