Top 10 Tech Items of 2008 - Part 3

6. digg.com.

While Digg.com is not new to 2008, the popular awareness great to a great degree during last year, so we've added to the list.

Digg is the first, popularly used online user-submitted news website. Which means when you find a story on the web with a Digg icon/link, you click it, and the story is automatically submitted to Digg.com. If the story has already been submitted, then your click acts as a vote. Digg has an algorithm that computes the story's popularity by the number of clicks in a determined set of time. The beauty of the site is that it allows users to dictate what is important / interesting, and we can all go and read news that might otherwise would not get reported. There are subsections of the site that allow you to focus on jus the topics that interest you.

If you enjoy listening to podcasts and have an interest in technology with a sophmore slant, give the Diggnation podcasts a shot.

Pros: great and obscure news items that you'd probably never see.
Cons: at times the information reads a bit like press releases especially in the tech arena.

5. TED.com
If you enjoy listening to smart people who a re innovating and advancing the ball, navigate over to Ted.com. You'll be educated while being entertained by some of today's most interesting people. Technology, entertainment, design, business, science, culture, arts, global issues, feature - you'll find something that is of interests to you.

Pros: better than 99% of the programming on TV and it's free.
Cons: you'll spend hours and hours watching/listening to these speakers while your work and other responsibilities are neglected, but you'll feel significantly more intelligent afterwards.

Top 10 Tech Items of 2008 - Part 2

8. Abel Reels website. There were quite a few impressive website designs from last year, but Abel takes the top prize. Their website is a perfect example of great design, superb usability, amazing photography, and the right amount of text to make a lasting impression on their customers. The designers borrowed the Mac style of marketing, and then they took it one notch higher.

Top 10 Tech Items of 2008 - Part 1

This list features our top 10 tech gadgets, websites, and technologies of 2008. Some you've probably heard of, and some of the items are still not mainstream. A few of items are not actually from 2008, but they either had significant updates, revisions, or finally experienced enough of a growth to become useful.

If you have not had the chance to experience these items listed, take a few minutes and give them a try.