The list of honorees follows below, and it’s a list packed with newcomers as well as Silicon Valley veterans. Thanks to all for voting in the nomination process, and now that we’ve narrowed it down to five candidates for each award, don’t forget to vote for which person or company you think is most deserving. Voting begins today (the voting page can be found here, and the rules are here) and closes on January 24th.

As a reminder, the Crunchies, a joint production with our friends at Techcrunch and Venturebeat, will take place on Thursday, January 31, 2013, from 7:30pm to 11:30pm at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. You can purchase tickets here.

So, without any further delay, the nominees for the 2012 Crunchies are as follows:

Best Technology Achievement
Baumgartner Jump
Google Glass
Mars Curiosity
SpaceX docks with International Space Station
Tesla Supercharger Network

Best Collaborative Consumption Service
Airbnb
Get It Now/Postmates
Lyft
TaskRabbit
Uber

Best E-Commerce Application
Fab
Hotel Tonight
Karma/Facebook Gifts
Warby Parker
Zulily

Best Mobile Application
Evernote
Google Maps
Grindr
Instagram
Square

Fastest Rising Startup
Exec
Lyft
Pinterest
Snapchat
Stripe

Best Content Discovery Application
Flipboard
Instapaper
Pinterest
Prismatic
Tumblr

Best Design
Facebook Timeline
Medium
Paper by FiftyThree
Square
Svbtle

Best Bootstrapped Startup
FreshBooks
Instapaper
Nimbus
Techmeme
Upverter

Sexiest Enterprise Startup
Asana
Box
Cloudera
Plexxi
Zendesk

Best International Startup
Hailo
Rovio
Soundcloud
Spotify
Xiaomi

Best Education Startup
Codecademy
Coursera
Edmodo
Khan Academy
Udacity

Best Hardware Startup
Lit Motors
Lockitron
Makerbot
Nest
Raspberry Pi

Best Time Sink
Angry Birds Star Wars
Buzzfeed
Letterpress
Pinterest
WhatsApp

Biggest Social Impact
Donors Choose
Indiegogo
Kickstarter
Kiva
Reddit

Angel of the Year
Michael Arrington
Chris Dixon
Paul Graham
David Lee
Chris Sacca

VC of the Year
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz
Matt Cohler
Jim Goetz
Michael Moritz
Peter Thiel

Founder of the Year
Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia (Airbnb)
Kevin and Julia Hartz (Eventbrite)
Elon Musk (SpaceX, Tesla)
Kevin Systrom (Instagram)
Nir Zuk (Palo Alto Networks)

CEO of the Year
Dick Costolo (Twitter)
Phil Libin (Evernote)
Marissa Mayer (Yahoo!)
Larry Page (Google)
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Best New Startup of 2012
Coursera
Crowdtilt
Lyft
Snapchat
Waze

Best Overall Startup of 2012
Fab
Github
Instagram
Palantir
Square

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• Work media tools in 2012 and beyond
• Flash analysis: future opportunities for Pinterest

In case you’re unfamiliar, Techmeme is a must-read news aggregator for Silicon Valley types that also acts as a gold star dispenser for tech writers who vie to appear on it. Rivera, the site’s founder, is thoughtful and soft-spoken in person but comes across on Twitter like this:

Rivera has made an out-sized impression on tech journalism not only as an influencer but also for his use of robot-style publishing. Techmeme and its sister site Mediagazer both rely on online signals to determine if an article should appear and also whether to move it up or down the page. Only in the last four years has Rivera introduced human editors, based in time zones stretching from Bulgaria to Australia, to help the robots do their jobs.

At the event in New York, which was hosted by media company Outbrain, Rivera explained to Business Insider’s Steve Kovach why algorithms will never be able to curate as effectively as humans.

“A lot of people who think they can go all the way with the automated approach fail to realize a news story has become obsolete,” said Rivera, explaining that an article can be quickly superseded even if it receives a million links or tweets.

This is why Rivera now relies on human editors to shepherd the headlines that bubble up and swat down the inappropriate ones. He argues any serious tech or political news provider will always have to do the same.

Rivera is also not enthused about social-based news platforms — sites like LinkedIn Today or Flipboard that assemble news stories based on what your friends are sharing on social media. Asked if Techmeme will offer a social-based news feed, Rivera said don’t count on it.

“People like to go to the New York Times and look at what’s on the front page because they have a lot of trust in what editors decide and they know other people read it. We want to do the same thing,” he said. “There’s value in being divorced from your friends … I’d rather see what’s on the front of the New York Times.”

As for the business of Techmeme, Rivera says the site relies on three forms of advertising, all of which could be considered “native advertising” — the mantra now being preached in publishing circles. Specifically, Techmeme makes money from sponsored posts, job listings and event posts.

Finally, Rivera offered a frank and sanguine take on his plans to tune up his sites for the mobile age.

“I think the mobile site gets the job done but it could be snappier. We should do our own app. But we have 2 developers and one of them is me.”

(Image by Sarah Holmlund via Shutterstock)

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Social 2013: The enterprise strikes back
• The quantified self: hacking the body for better health
• How to navigate the new world of digital advertising

Techmeme, the technology-news aggregator that is like CNN for many geeks and tech fans, has given its seal of approval to the idea that Twitter is a real-time news network — founder Gabe Rivera announced today that tweets will now be highlighted as headlines on the site, if they meet his newsworthiness criteria, and even Twitter messages that refer to a breaking news story can make it onto Techmeme if they are noteworthy in some way, or posted by influential users. But will this new feature provide the site with more news to choose from sooner, or will it overwhelm the service with noise?

I admit that my first response to the news (which I saw on Twitter, naturally) was that it didn’t really seem to make a lot of sense. It seemed a little like printing text messages on the front page of the newspaper, in some ways. Much like Twitter, text messages are for chatting and banter, while the front page of a paper is where the important headlines and story excerpts are supposed to go. And Techmeme is very much like the front page of a newspaper, except it’s a newspaper that is devoted solely to technology, and it is updated minute by minute, and sometimes even second by second. Wouldn’t mixing an informal chat-oriented medium like Twitter mess up the headline aspect of the site?

In looking at the current example of the feature, which is Rivera’s own tweet followed by a lot of @ replies, it does seem quite noisy. There are dozens and dozens of comments of 140-character or less attached to the original, and none of them really add a lot to the conversation (including mine, I confess). Or rather, some of them might add something, but it’s really hard to tell which ones, or to sort through them all looking for meaning. On Techmeme’s sister site Mediagazer, where tweets are mixed in with blog headlines, it’s hard to tell what is a tweet and what is a link to a blog post, which presumably would have more to add than just a single offhand comment.

That said, however, Rivera makes a good case in his blog post that tweets can in many cases be news, or make news — such as an announcement from a company that is launching something, or a rumor posted by a celebrity. Another example the Techmeme founder uses is the tweet from former Twitter engineer Alex Payne that seemed to signal unpleasant changes coming for third-party Twitter developers, and was eventually followed by exactly that. In that case, however, it’s arguable that the tweet only became news because TechCrunch wrote about it and put it in context. Would the tweet itself have made Techmeme without the context that blog post provided? I don’t think so.

In any case, it’s interesting that Rivera sees tweets as potentially newsworthy enough to make it part of his news-filtering service — something venture capitalist and blogger (and Twitter investor) Fred Wilson was suggesting might happen as far back as 2008, before many people had even recognized that Twitter was a worthwhile service, let alone a real-time information network. And presumably, the Techmeme founder will apply the same combination of algorithm-driven selection and human filtering that he has to the headlines to keep tweets from overwhelming the site. And Twitter now has another thing to point to that confirms it is a real news network.

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d):

• Why Google Should Fear the Social Web
• Lessons From Twitter: How to Play Nice With Ecosystem Partners
• What We Can Learn From the Guardian’s Open Platform

One of the best ways to find this news and interesting information is by using sites that provide smart ways to aggregate content. In some of these examples, the content is curated by real people, but in others, it’s generated algorithmically in that the posts being linked to or discussed rise to the top. Here are a few of my favorite ways to discover new and relevant content to get you started.

Techmeme

Techmeme is probably the most well-known way to find the hottest tech industry news. It uses a combination of human editorial input and algorithms to find the posts that people are talking about and linking to. My favorite thing about Techmeme is that it has an excerpt of the main story along with links to many of the other bloggers who are discussing the same topic. It’s easy to get a quick understanding of the story, while getting a look at how different people are reacting to the news. These reactions can be particularly fascinating for some of the more controversial stories. I use Techmeme to keep up with the news that all of the rest of the bloggers are discussing so that when I go out with my geeky friends in the evening, I’ll be ready to talk about the latest news.

The Twitter Tim.es

My new favorite content discovery site is The Twitter Tim.es because my personalized page is curated by the people that I choose to follow on Twitter. It takes the links posted by the people you follow and links from friends of friends, and puts them into a newspaper-style layout with the most frequently tweeted links at the top with larger headlines. Since I only follow people on Twitter that I really want to keep up with, the content that appears on my Twitter Tim.es page is highly relevant for me. It usually contains a mix of general technology information and Portland news, which is my perfect mix. You will need to sign into Twitter to create your pages, but as it uses oAuth to authenticate with Twitter you don’t have to give up your Twitter password.

Lazyfeed

I’ve just started using Lazyfeed, but it shows some real promise. You pick any topic that you want to learn about, and it provides real-time updates on the most recent content in your topic. It has a couple of features that make it particularly useful. First, it is really easy to add or delete topics, which makes it a great way to keep up with a hot topic temporarily (like a product launch) and then delete the topic after the buzz dies down. It also suggests related topics, which can be helpful when you are starting research on something new or to pull in some additional information.

What are your tips for discovering new and relevant content?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• A 2011 NewNet Forecast
• NewNet Winners and Losers of 2009
• The 2013 task management tools market

Holiday spending has seen sales of Apple’s Magic Mouse soar. According to a report by NPD and covered today by AppleInsider, last month saw a twofold increase in Apple’s share of domestic mice sales. By the end of November, Apple had captured 10 percent of the market.

NPD analyst Stephen Baker told AppleInsider:

Sales in November were through the roof. The Magic Mouse had the best month for a mouse product from Apple that we’ve ever seen.

It’s the first time Apple’s share of the domestic mouse market has ever reached double digits, and even more impressive considering the data was compiled from standalone sales. Units sold with new iMacs were not counted.

While that’s fantastic news for Apple, I find myself wondering whether those new Magic Mouse owners aren’t going to be feeling somewhat disappointed because, despite its name, the Magic Mouse is anything but magical. For a company that gets so much of its user experience spot-on, it does keep missing the target with its pointing devices.

Andy Ihnatko said it best:

I can’t think of a single good Apple mouse released this millennium. Ideologically, they’ve all been covered with spray-glitter and rainbow stickers.

When I got my Magic Mouse I admired its diminutive form factor and minimalist lines but it was clearly not an ergonomic design. That super slimline, ground-hugging shape took some getting used to. But aesthetic and ergonomic matters aside, I think the thorniest issue isn’t with the hardware at all. The problem, as I see it, is one of user perception.

You see, users accustomed to the touchy-goodness of an iPhone or MacBook trackpad lament the lack of similar functionality in their supposedly ‘magic’ mouse. The major criticism is usually expressed in the form of common questions, like, Why is there no pinch to zoom functionality? Why do we have to click, when we could tap? Why aren’t more swipe-gestures supported?

“It’s just a software fix,” reviewers on popular Apple tech sites have concluded, “Apple will likely add that functionality later in a software update.”

Well, I don’t think so. In fact, I think Apple will intentionally avoid adding further touch functionality to this mouse, and I think I know why.

Be Careful What You Wish For

In the relatively short time since the Magic Mouse was released in late October, several third-party applications have appeared, both free and paid, that (ahem) ‘tap’ into the Magic Mouse software and foist upon the device all that pinching, swiping, multi-touch functionality people think they want. Well, I also thought I wanted those things…until I got them.

Remember how, with the Mighty Mouse, you had to handle it with care because those side-buttons could be way too sensitive? They were so sensitive, in fact, many people disabled those buttons entirely because they proved such a nuisance. Turns out, having multifunctional touch-sensitive controls all across the surface of the Magic Mouse turns the thing into a far greater nuisance than its “mighty” predecessor ever was.

I swiftly discovered that controls I wanted to trigger (say, a three-finger-tap) often wouldn’t register. I’d spend an inordinate amount of time obsessive-compulsively tapping the mouse with minimal success. Pinching and zooming was literally painful, transforming my hand into a deformed claw of knotted knuckles and cramp. Yet, for all my efforts, it still never zoomed in a controlled, predictable manner.

Worse still, functions I didn’t intentionally invoke would trigger while I was doing something else entirely. It got to the point where simply moving the pointer across the screen — an action so natural and normal I normally give it no conscious thought — was now an event demanding deliberate care and attention. I tried two of the most popular apps and got the same results each time.

In short , it’s not a software problem, but rather, a limitation imposed by the very form factor of the mouse. As long as Apple wants its flagship pointing device to be small, svelte and sexy, it’s just not going to be the right shape and size for full-fledged multi-touch controls.

Software like MagicPrefs introduces hugely varied additional functionality

Apple, I’m sure, did a lot of R&D to determine what were the most appropriate default touch controls for the Magic Mouse. Therefore, a feature’s absence is a deliberate choice. It makes perfect sense. One of the most celebrated aspects of Apple’s user-experience is its consistency; across all Macs the user experience is predictable and dependable. There are rarely unexpected (or unwelcome) surprises. Much of the time, that’s made possible by Apple’s minimalist, ‘less-is-more’ approach to interface design.

That is why so many people disliked the Mighty Mouse. In trying to do so much it was just too unpredictable and ruined the user experience. And that is why the Magic Mouse is so limited. It’s better this way.

I just wonder if all those new Magic Mouse owners will agree?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• A field guide to cloud computing: current trends, future opportunities
• Infrastructure Q1: IaaS Comes Down to Earth; Big Data Takes Flight

OneSpot

OneSpot offers a service that provides a feed of relevant stories for a web site or newsletter based on content pulled from more than 250,000 online sites. Site owners using the service select web sites that produce content their audience is likely to find useful, and OneSpot uses that criteria to create a customized OneSpot feed of stories from the 250,000 sites it tracks.

The current version is a white-label solution, and content users can fully customize. With the latest round, Cohen plans to expand the market for the product by offering a version with limited configuration options for a “monthly fee in the two or three digits rather than four digits.” My biggest beef with the product when it launched last June was that it was too expensive for more than a small handful of content sites. (The Wall Street Journal uses the high-end version of the software on several of its blogs, for example.) So, this seems like a good move. However, it will still have to distinguish itself from other content aggregation and discovery sources, such as Techmeme, Reddit and Sphere.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• What Does the Future Hold For Browsers?
• Threats Loom Large for Microsoft’s Email and Collaboration Platforms
• The 2013 task management tools market

I love San Francisco and always enjoy visiting but this trip is a very fast-paced short one with a full schedule.  We had an all day meeting at the GigaOM headquarters yesterday that saw us leave the hotel at 7:30 am and not returning until 10:30 last night.

Both Kevin and I brought our MacBooks which we used to give two presentations to the group.  The MacBook worked well for giving the presentations since we had access to that special VGA adapter to hook it up to the projector.  Shame on you Apple for not providing that adapter for free.

We created the presentations in Google Docs in keeping with our cloud working philosophy and that worked well to preclude the need to give handouts to attendees.  We just gave them the links to the two presentations in Google Docs and were done with that.

Kevin also brought his MSI Wind and it was nice to see how well Windows 7 runs on the Wind.  I had forgotten how small and compact the Wind is and am impressed anew as I am every time I see it.  On a similar note Windows 7 is running well under Parallels on my MacBook too.

Today will find me working in SF as I head back to Houston tomorrow.  It will be so nice to get some down time at home.  I will post an abbreviated Mobile Tech Manor column later today.  You probably noticed there was not one published last week since I was at the CES all week and not even at MTM but I’ll try to get one done for the past week soon.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• A 2011 Mobile Forecast
• 5 Mobile Companies to Watch in 2011
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories