Hot new social network Pinterest, digital music jukebox Spotify, online storage service Dropbox, internet calling firm Skype and social reading app Flipboard are among the big names vying to win one of the world's most coveted internet awards.
Pinterest, Dropbox and Funny or Die Lead Pack for Webby Awards (Copyright: Reuters)
The nominees for The Webby Awards across more than 70 categories have been announced, celebrating every aspect of cyberspace and digital innovation.
As well as searching for the globe's greatest websites, The Webbys also pick out the coolest products for Mobile & Apps. Everything from Best Use of a Camera or GPS to Mobile Video and Tablet Entertainment is recognised.
Now in its 16th year, the website gongs are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) with a huge range of categories covered including Activism, Writing, Celebrity, Charity, Games, Food, Community, News and Music. There are also awards for Blogs, including a specific category for people's personal blog sites.
Two of the biggest and hotly-contested categories are set to be Social Media and Music Mobile & Apps with both featuring a range of massive digital names.
For Social Media, Pinterest is up against Google+, CNN iReport, I Had Cancer and Storify, while in the Music category Spotify is challenging NPR Music, SoundCloud, djay and Pandora.
Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of Mashable, accepts the Best Business Blog award at last year's Webby Awards in …This year there is also a special award dedicated to how the internet has helped bring about social change. The People's Special Achievement Webby for Social Change is selected by the public with nominees Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Kiva, and Change.org all vying for the honour.
David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of the Webby Awards, said: "The nominees mirror this incredible year on the internet, from memes to viral videos to cultural movements and extraordinary creativity.
"IADAS has distilled the best and most innovative work on the web and we look forward to celebrating at this year’s ceremony in May."
Each Webby category has two winners. The first is chosen by the great and the good of the web world, who themselves form a voting academy. They include such luminaries as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Instagram founder Kevin Systrom, who has just sold his picture sharing app to Facebook for $1bn.
But you can have your say too by voting for The Webby People's Voice Awards. Voting is open until April 26th at pv.webbyawards.com and with so many categories to choose from, you can sign up and pick your favourites from a list of nominees presented by the voting academy.
And this year there are a host of British names doing battle against their American rivals who need supporting.
Comedy stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - the guys behind Shaun of the Dead - are up for Best Individual Performance in the Online Film & Video category for their amateur take on Star Wars.
It is also nominated in the Comedy: Individual Short or Episode category.
Other UK people or organisations in with a chance of winning include the British Heart Foundation for Health Website and the University of Nottingham in the Reality category of Online Film & Video for its video take on the scientific Periodic Table.
Wallace and Gromit makers Aardman Animations also get a nod for Gulp, a stop-motion film shot entirely on a mobile phone in Wales. It is nominated for Animation and follows a fisherman heading out for his daily catch - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieN2vhslTTU
British start-up Swiftkey, an easy-to-use keyboard for Android phones, is in the running for Experimental and Innovation against the likes of Google Wallet.
It was founded in 2008 by two Cambridge University graduates and is based in London.
The app replaces the built-in Android touchscreen keyboard and uses technology to predict words more accurately than its rivals. It can also be personalised for different programs and functions and since its launch in 2010 has been downloaded more than six million times.
Joe Braidwood, chief marketing officer at SwiftKey said: "We're absolutely ecstatic that our little British start-up has been nominated for a Webby amid so many major US firms. It's great that, despite the competition, our commitment to innovation in mobile is being noticed.
"2012 has already been a fantastic year for us. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we beat Google to be named the most innovative app. We're up against them again with this Webby nomination - fingers crossed we can pip them twice."
The winners of The Webby Awards will be announced on May 1 in New York, with the victors limited to acceptance speeches just five words long. Now, if only that happened at the Oscars.
