Tech Digest's Top 10 Web 2.0 crushes

Is it sexist to compile a list of the ten Web 2.0 women who make Tech Digest go weak at the keyboard? Well, yes. But ShinyShiny started it with their shameless objectification of gadget-clutching hunks the other week, so what choice did we have?

But rather than book in Lucy Pinder and Jodie Marsh to hold some MP3 players while striking unconvincing Sapphic poses, we thought we’d compile a list of people we respect for their minds, achievements and (hopefully) ENORMOUS stock options.

With that in mind then, read on for the inaugural Tech Digest Top 10 Web 2.0 Crushes list. It’s like Time magazine’s Person Of The Year award! Except with no men, a few more jokes, and no chance of the great unwashed public winning it. Hurrah! They’re not in order, by the way. We’d only end up coming to blows if we tried.

1. Whitney Matheson (left)
The writer of USA Today’s Pop Candy blog recently scooped a well-deserved Weblog Award, having spent the year documenting pop culture’s hip and hidden treasures. The blog is far more than just a collection of links – its humour and sassiness shine through. Plus we like her trainers.

2. Marissa Meyer
As vice president of search products and user experience at Google, Marissa’s got a key say in how we’re using the Web (although the downside is she knows what sites we’ve been surfing, probably.) Formerly Google’s first female engineer, she’s been responsible for over 100 features and products on Google.com since.

3. Mena Trott
We’d call Mena the Queen of The Blogosphere, if it wasn’t such a rubbish title. Nevertheless, as co-head-honcho of Six Apart, her role driving Typepad, Vox, Movable Type and LiveJournal mean she’s a driving force behind the evolution of blogging. Plus she’s not afraid to swear at hecklers during conferences, which we respect. No, it wasn’t us heckling. Check out our recent interview.

4. The Inky Circus bloggers (right)
Anna Gosline, Katie Law and Anne Casselman are three science journalists (i.e. they actually understand the stuff Tech Digest blags its way through) divided between London and Vancouver. We love their sparky blog and their non-macho take on science. If only they’d been in our class at school, we would’ve actually tried harder in Physics…

5. Susi Weaser
All you US blokes dribbling over That Rocketboom Woman. Stop! She’s so over. TV’s Susi Weaser is the thinking geek’s ideal lady, seeing as how she’s confident on camera, knows her gadget stuff, and isn’t afraid to roll around in a fat suit or don a Cyberman helmet for ShinyShiny’s benefit. Actually, we have a dim memory that those last two attributes are what our mothers warned us about when we were young…

6. Emily Chang
If you’re at all interested in Web 2.0 gubbins, you should be reading eHub. It’s a constantly updated resource of web apps, services and sites, along with interviews. Emily herself is an award-winning web and interaction designer, as well as something of an expert on next-gen webness of all kinds.

7. Xochi Birch (left)
MySpace? Schmyspace! Bebo is where it’s at for all the cool kids nowadays (so our cool nephew told us, in between disdainful snorts at our sheer uncoolness). As one half of the team behind Bebo, Xochi is piloting the next level of social networking. Plus, this means she’s the Anti-Murdoch. Kind of. And there’s nothing we like more in a woman more than NOT being a wrinkly right-wing newspaper baron…

8. That green woman with the pointy ears we met in Second Life
She signified the zeitgeisty thingummy of 21st century virtuality. Plus she was HOT. Apart from the big furry erection, obviously, But she told us she was a woman. Hang on…

9. Caterina Fake
Half of another Web 2.0 double-act, Caterina’s responsible for photo-sharing site Flickr, which continues to be the main resting point for the blurry, out-of-focus snaps our cameraphone took by accident in our pocket. Look, one commenter called them art, who are we to disagree? Flickr exemplifies Web 2.0 by being easy to use, community-led, and acquired by Yahoo.

10. Anina (right)
An obvious choice maybe, seeing as she’s a model-turned-blogger who looks marvellous in a white suit on conference podiums. But for banging the drum for blogging, especially among the fickle fashion world, she deserves a round of applause. Now if only we could find some way to get a question in edgeways…