The best in the online world over the past  year:

Categories:

1. Music and video – The Winner:

VIMEO

Vimeo is for the creative community. They upload their movies/ animation and add to the growing pool of original content and innovative ideas online

2. Sports – The Winner:

Sports- Reference.com

The site compiles statistics and game results for seven sports — baseball, football, basketball, hockey, college football, college basketball and the Olympics — linking the past with the present for every franchise and athlete. Plus, it’s updated on an in-season basis, bringing the latest facts and figures to your computer.

3. News and Info – The Winner:

The Guardian

No other newspaper has embraced the digital age like the UK Guardian.

Not only can you read up to 1 Million articles online for FREE, but the site also has a great design and provides applications for users to reshuffle the paper’s extensive content to suit their needs

4. Financial & Productivity – The Winner:

Mint

The site allows you to simultaneously track every major bank account: checking, savings, credit cards, loans and investments. Mint also empowers you to break down your spending habits, tracking where each dollar goes.

5. Shopping & Travel – The Winner:

Groupon

This is an American site which generates great deals on shopping and travel. The savings are redeemed in coupon form, by purchasing online and through accumulated group buying the prices are staying down as consumers are given more choices.

The companies equivalent of Groupon in Australia are:

Living Social   and    Scoopon

6. Health & Fitness- The Winner:

Keas

Keas aims to provide tailored health programs for individual users by combining personal medical data with general health advice. Companies like Quest Diagnostics have teamed up with Keas to input personal data, like blood-test results, to the site. You can sign up for various plans, including ones focused on cholesterol, diabetes and blood pressure, that give you tips and reminders, and Keas will give you personal status reports with individual goals

7. Social Media – The Winner:

Gowalla

The new social networking platform. Hasn’t quite taken off in Australia yet, but it allows fun features such as checking in with your smart phone device and sharing your places with friends. There are brightly coloured badges and a funky interface you can be a part of. Its probably the funnest passport platform out there.

8.Games – The Winner:

Kongregate

This site will keep you occupied all day, so be careful not to get sucked in!

Game addicts will find a rich variety of games online and the ability to level up will entice all to return.

Game designers also have an incentive to get hooked as there are competitions for best game designs on a monthly basis.

9. Education - The Winner:

Livemocha

It’s a social approach to learning a language, and one that’s cheaper than pricey software like Rosetta Stone — basic courses are free, and utilizing the community costs only a small monthly fee. The site has over 6 Million members, and offers exercises in over 30 languages to get you going.

10. Family & Kids -The Winner:

Design Mom

Gabrielle Blair ( an interior designer) juggles her career and 6 kids. Blair’s posts are about motherhood and designing in a kid friendly way. There are plenty of exciting ideas to keep you entertained, from cut paper art to redesigning your foyer.