The Webby Awards is thrilled to honor ChatRoulette as the Breakout of the Year. Taking the connective and democratic power of the Internet to new heights, ChatRoulette has changed the game for online media and captivated a global audience like no web phenomenon has before. ChatRoulette’s 17-year old creator and technical wizard Andrey Ternovskiy will grace the Webby stage to accept the award, and deliver a 5-word acceptance speech. 

See the Special Achievement winners here and stay tuned as we announce more.

Watch the Webbys on YouTube, Andrey’s 5-word speech included, starting June 15th.

Been to the voting page yet today? Look what it says:

Whoop! Maintaining that air of mystery before polls close. Can you blame us? So what do we have to share with you today?

Total number of votes as of this morning:

And expecting that number to get a whole lot bigger very soon!

One place (3 places) where we’re proud to be trending (captured via Trendsmap):

….and why your vote still matters:

This year’s Battle for Web Supremacy has been at turns thrilling, hilarious, frightening and overall just too. much. fun.

There are mere hours left to vote before polls close at 11:59pm PST, but let’s be honest: it’s not nearly over.

When it comes to the final stretch of People’s Voice, it’s all about the swinging standings, the tie-breaking vote…It’s almost like the last two weeks don’t even exist when you’re looking at the last day of voting.

So all that work you did voting, campaigining and following the stats doesn’t even matter? SORRY. True. It all comes down to now!

Nominees, we encourage you to keep getting out the vote. And voters, keep voting!!!

Thanks and congratulations to all nominees for running such inspiring campaigns.

If you’re doing anything interesting or see any interesting campaigns today, keep sending them our way and we’ll post them throughout the day.

Follow @TheWebbyAwards and Tweet us your faves, of course!

In short, dear congregants, the Webby Award is in in your hands (or your favorites’ hands). ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GO GET IT! Now chase that Webby dream!

BEST OF LUCK!

ATTENTION: The Webby People’s Voice polls close at 11:59pm EST on Thursday, April 29th, 2010.

That means that your last chance to vote is tomorrow, people!!! Webby fate is in your hands! VOTE VOTE VOTE.

Current number of decisive Webby approvals thus far:

Two fun sources of Twitter trending today, captured via Trendsmap:

Back to the races. In the Webby final hour, huge leads swing in the opposite direction, ties are broken, fifth-place nominees become first-place finishers. That’s where you come in.

Here today, we share some of the super-close calls that need your attention now. Read on and then VOTE!

Let’s go back to where we started:

We called it! We knew this one would come down to the last minute. In both Mobile News and News Websites, BBC is inching past the competition, but only slightly. Total close one! Disagree with these standings? Well, do yourself a favor and go vote!

News Mobile:

News Websites:

How has Bobby Miller of The Reel Good Show’s epic campaign worked for him so far?

Quite well, it seems! He’s currently just about first in Variety. We’re hearing lots of love for nominee Daryl Hall on this one too! This is one of the more hotly debated Webby categories with expository debates going on in the Comments sections of these videos. Glad to give you a People’s Voice forum to air all those People’s Voice grievances, folks! And glad to see how much you like your favorites!

Whatever you pick, and whether or not you comment, go vote in Variety!

More ties await you at the Webby polling page including Best Use of Social Media, Video Remixes/Mashups and Online Guerilla & Innovation. Stats disappear tomorrow so go vote while you can still see what’s happening!

628,000 votes have been counted and there are 2 days to go!

So until polls close on April 29th at 11:59pm EST, VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE.

Featured Battle: Restaurants

OH MAN, things are getting intense up in this Restaurants war! 

There’s a full-on Twitter/social media/campaign/MONEY-FUELED fight going on between Yo! Sushi and Giraffe Restaurants! We don’t endorse this technique, but we do endorse competition intensity: Both restaurants are hosting contests in which fans can win £100 if they vote. Not sure if the contests apply to non-Brits, but anyway it’s totally worth checking out all five of these awesome nominees!

Follow @YoSushi and @GiraffeTweet if you like drama and, of course, follow @TheWebbyAwards if you like part-referees/part-instigators! 

Here are the current standings:

Go vote!

Elsewhere on Twitter, Celebrities!

They’re just like us! Because they vote in the Webbys! And Tweet about it, apparently:

Lance Armstrong wants your votes and David Lynch wants your votes.

Eddie Izzard wants your votes.

And Johnny Weir wants your votes.

Yay!

Re-Featured Smacktalking: Blog - Cultural

After yesterday’s feature, the Blog - Cultural battle is bringing on even more major smacktalking.  

On Twitter, Anthony Bourdain Blog @NoReservations is dissing 1,000 Awesome Things @1000Awesome. This is a battle between dark and light, sour and sweet. So pick your side and vote!

Re-Featured Battle: Green

Today’s standings in Green are so close, we drew a line so you could see the milimeter-width distinction between Love Letters to the Future and Waterlife.

Which brings us to our…

Featured Campaign

Yoink! A solid 4th in Green at the moment with the potential to overtake the three noms in the lead, Yoink posted an open letter to Webby Judge Sir Richard Branson today asking him to help them in their environmental crusade of reducing waste and increasing generosity. Very smart! Very creative! Very Webby! Check it out at their blog! And vote in Green!