The Crunchies 2007 Through Pictures

by Brian Solis

The Crunchies are The Oscars for Web 2.0 and last night the a-list, entrepreneurs, bloggers, VCs, press, and Web celebrities glammed up and celebrated at the Herbst Theater.

Upon arrival, I was struck by the true meaning of what I was suddenly witnessing. We are all contributing to the defining moments in the new Web economy. These are the times that the world will remember…it’s all the glamor and significance of Web 1.0 without the shallowness and hype – at least for now as there are already blinding hints of degradation.

Michael Arrington on ABC

The event officially placed Web 2.0 in the history books and cemented the position of longevity and influence for TechCrunch, GigaOm, Read/Write Web and VentureBeat.

I was immediately overwhelmed with familiar faces which spun me into a tornado of handshakes and hugs.

I had a front row view of all the action…however, I am desperately struggling to remember all of the details from the evening as most of it remains one continuous blur. Instead, I’ll tell the story through pictures.

No event is complete without spotlights

The lobby

Sarah Meyers of PopSnap.net

Meghan Asha

Pleo

Natali Del Conte and Rafe Needleman of CNET

Dan Kaplan of VentureBeat and Vanessa Camones

Michael Arrington

Lane Hartwell

Mark Zuckerberg

Gabe Rivera of Techmeme (Congratulations Gabe!)

Om Malik, Richard MacManus, Matt Marshall, Mike Arrington

The Crunchie

Love the khakis and blue shirts! I’m sending this to The Gap and Old Navy…

Om Malik (Om, we were all thrilled to see you!)

Without further ado, the winners:

Best Overall: Facebook

Best technology innovation / achievement: Earthmine

Best Clean Tech Startup: Tesla Motors

Best video startup: Hulu

Best user-generated content site: Digg

Best mobile start-up: Twitter

Best International startup: Netvibes

Best consumer startup: Meebo

Best enterprise startup: Zoho

Best design: SmugMug

Best new gadget/ device: Apple iPhone. See the Apple acceptance speech here.

Best business model: Zazzle

Best bootstrapped startup: Techmeme.

Best Startup Founder: Mark Zuckerberg

Best Startup CEO: Toni Schneider, Automattic

Best new startup: iMedix

Most likely to succeed: Automattic

Best use of viral marketing: StumbleUpon

Best time sink site: Kongregate

An empty lobby

You can view the rest of my pictures on flickr.

Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plaxo, or Facebook.