One of the most important technology awards events, that recognize the contribution of innovative entrepreneurs and online startups, took place last night: The 2011 Crunchies. The event was hosted by three of the leading tech blogs online (GigaOm, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch) which grant it much greater prestige and considerable value.

The ceremony was broadcast online for free (you can watch the full event in the video at the bottom) and appeared in San Francisco’s Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in front of nearly 3,000 people. The nominees and the winners are almost completely determined by the public which also makes it the “people choice tech-awards”. Let’s go over the winners:

Technology Achievement – Siri
The new service that presented during the Apple iPhone 4S launch provides the possibility to communicate with the device by voice.

Social Application – Google+
Although Google claims its not a social network but an identity service, i am sure they were pretty satisfied with the win of their new product that just recently confirmed it has 90 million users.

Shopping Application – Fab
The designs daily deal site that offers up to 70 percent discounts managed to grab this award from other great shopping services like Warby Parker and Lot18.

Mobile Application – Evernote
Evernote won this award due to their great innovative concept that the app is allowing the users to “remember” everything they want by using their mobile device.

Location Application – Grindr
This really took me by surprise as i was sure Foursquare will win this category but eventually Grindr that provides mobile social networking services for the gay community took it.

Tablet Application – Fotopedia
Well deserved win for the platform that actually offers nine great mobile visual apps.

Design – Path 2.0
The mobile sharing application that after its major redesign managed to increase its user base by more than 30 times as much as before, (easily?) won.

Bootstrapped Startup – Imgur
Imgur which offers one of the easiest image sharing platforms ever created received its well earned award.

Cloud Service – Dropbox
One of the most interesting categories where Dropbox eventually managed to top other great cloud-computing services like Box and CloudFlare.

International Startup – Peixe Urbano
The Latin-American eCommerce website that originally founded in Brazil and now it is also well established in Argentina, Mexico and Chile has won this category.

Clean Tech Startup – EcoATM
Nice win for the company that tries to solve the eWaste problem.

New Device – Nest
WOW, what a contest: Galaxy Nexus, iPad 2, iPhone 4S, Kindle Fire and which eventually took the grand prize, Nest Thermostat!

Time Sink – Words With Friends
The social mobile game by Zynga that challenges players with words has won this genius category.

Social Impact – Twitter
Well, i guess that after all the recent world events (mostly Arab Spring) that Twitter was involved in, i would have been incredibly surprised if it wouldn’t won it.

Angel of the Year – Reid Hoffman
After making The professional social network, LinkedIn, to a public company, Reid Hoffman received his recognition.

VC of the Year – Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz
A vote of trust to the venture capital fund, Andreessen Horowitz, that invested in many startups like Digg, Plazes, and Twitter.

Founder of the Year – Jack Dorsey
The co-founder of Twitter and the founder of the mobile payment app Square received the unofficial entrepreneur of the year award.

CEO of the Year – Jeff Weiner
LinkedIn’s CEO also rides the success of the company’s going public.

New Startup of 2011 – Pinterest
I was so afraid that Pinterest won’t take this prize but eventually justice has been served and the virtual pinboard that keeps growing fast has won.

Overall Startup of 2011 – Dropbox
Dropbox, with its second and more prestigious win managed to collect the greatest award of the event.