ReadWriteWeb

For the overworked, underpaid masses of highly competitive journalists, there is no salve for the battered ego that can match the healing power of the official, professional accolade. At San Francisco's Online Journalism Awards tonight, a select few received their hero's laurels.

Although the "literature on a deadline" aesthetic of journalism is not hard-wired for nostalgia and hasn't often the leisure for back-patting, several individuals, stories, and websites stand out for their achievements in the field and their contributions to our collective knowledge and engagement this year. Read on for the list of honorees and our assessment of their contributions.

The music industry and the Web industry have always had a contentious relationship. But it's hard to resist the drama of awards. This Sunday, the music world will be focused on the 51st annual Grammy Awards, the annual recognition of artistic achievement in music. And the Web is sure to be chock full of opinions and criticism about the final choices. We've worked to grab some resources to help you get the most out of the event, no matter what your musical tastes.

With today's technology startups, sometimes a little funding can go a long way. Today, 25 Facebook applications received word that they've got more runway ahead of them.

At a time when many companies are struggling to find funding for their ideas, these Facebook app developers have found themselves with $25,000 more to spend on development. It's all thanks to the Facebook fbFund, a grant program designed to "identify talent and seed innovation on the Facebook Platform."

Tickets for the Crunchies startup awards ceremony and party are available now for purchase. The event is a collaboration between ReadWriteWeb, GigaOm, VentureBeat and TechCrunch and it will be held on January 18 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. The ceremony starts at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a party, which is open to all.

The finalists have now been announced for the Crunchies, the awards show we’re co-hosting with Techcrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat. Voting will be live through to midnight PST Thursday, January 10. You can vote here, once a day.

There are bound to be startups disappointed not to have made the cut - and indeed a few of my own favorites didn’t make it. But that is the nature of awards. We received thousands of nominations and the 4 host blogs went back and forth many times to agree on our finalists. Check out the full list below and then go and start voting :-) If you’re a finalist, you may want to add a badge to your site to encourage people to vote for you.

ReadWriteWeb is proud to be a partner of the first annual Crunchies, a competition and award ceremony for the best startups of the year. It is being run by TechCrunch, Read/WriteWeb, GigaOm and VentureBeat. As the name indicates, TechCrunch is the driving force behind the awards and event - but it is a collaborative effort between the 4 of us. I'm a personal fan of the 3 other blogs, so it's great that we're working together on this event.

How will we be involved? Read/WriteWeb will be sponsoring some of the award categories that most align with our brand, and we will be involved in category selection and the ceremony. Nominations and voting will start soon at the Crunchies site. There will be a real-world award ceremony and party to announce the awards - date and venue tbc (it'll be in San Francisco though).

Most of all, the awards and ceremony is about celebrating Web startups - all the hard work they put in and innovation they create. So we at Read/WriteWeb are thrilled to be working with TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat to bring you the Crunchies! Stay tuned for more details over the coming weeks.