Tech News: Crunchies 2010 awards open for nominations

Yep. It's that time again: the time to submit your nominations for "Crunchies!" And what, may you ask, is a Crunchie?   What's up with the chimp with the bone?

Good freaking questions!

The Crunchies is an award given by a group that consists of representatives from the tech blogs, Tech Crunch, Venture Beat, and Gigaom, and done at any annual event, featuring a kick-ass party.

This time, it's going to take place January 21st, 2011 at The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, according to Tech Crunch.   The awards ceremony starts at 7:30 PM and the party will be next door, at The Exploratorium.

The event itself has great interviews, like this one where Tech Crunch Founder and Editor Michael Arrington sat down with current "Master of The Universe," Facebook Founder and President Mark Zuckerberg at the last Crunchies in January:



The Crunchies also features groups you've never heard of singing songs you want to sing. Here's "The Silicon Valley Song," also from the last shindig, and by The Richter Scales:



Folks, you can't make this stuff up.

Well, OK, you can make this stuff up. That's what The Crunchies is all about: celebrating people and their companies who make stuff up that you wind up using. Like Facebook - a Crunchies winner.

Oh, the chimp with the bone is the award, and comes from this:



(OK. I opted for the long-version so it would sink in.)

4,290 Nominations

As of this writing there are 4,290 awards nominations, in these categories: Best Internet Application, Best Social App, Best Social Commerce App, Best Mobile Application, Best Location Based Service, Best New Device, Best Technology Achievement, Best Design,Best Touch Interface,
Best Bootstrapped Startup,Best Enterprise, Best International, Best CleanTech,
Best Time Sink Application, Angel Of The Year, Venture Capitalist Of The Year (Individual), Founder Of The Year, CEO Of The Year,Best New Startup Or Product Of 2010,
Best Overall Startup Or Product Of 2010.

You can visit the nominations site with a click here: CRUNCHIES.

Who's won in the past? Facebook has won "Startup of The Year," every single year of The Crunchies. And that's the problem. Facebook can't be considered a startup anymore, yet its wins take recognition away from real startups.

Oh,  heck.  Maybe if it helps The Social Network win an Oscar?    Hmm....

But I digress.

So what other real startups? Well, how about the winners of the TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 Startup competitions, for one? How's Soluto doing? Want to nominate Tumblr for most classy recovery from a recent disaster?

Just saying.

Or how about Foursquare?

The point is, there are hundreds of companies just under the radar of Rupert Murdock and The Associated Press, and not corrupted by them, like Google News has become.

Just saying.

The Crunchies. Cast your vote. Come to the event.

Oh, and they're looking for sponsors, so read this TechCrunch blog post for more information.

Stay tuned.