2008 webby awards nominations

www.startribune.com/a4247

This YouTube sensation, by University of Minnesota graduate student Adam Bahner -- aka Tay Zonday, he of the Darth Vader voice and the Urkel looks -- has received more than 18 million views to date.

The catchy song, up for best viral video, has spawned countless parodies, the mark of a true viral classic.

www.thegoodfoodfight.com

This innovative site, created by Minneapolis agency Mono for General Mills, takes the burden of presenting healthy food information and turns it into a wild online game.

Once you pick your healthy dish and an on-screen virtual opponent, you can start throwing food around using the victuals pictured in the site's recipes and articles.

Nominated for best food and beverage website, it comes from the folks who created the viral sensation Monoface, a previous nominee.

The work of another "U" grad student, Jesse Vig, geoGreeting lets users send free e-mail greetings using letters formed from buildings and other landmarks on a satellite-view map of the world.

The clever site is up for best Net art for the second year in a row.

"I started geoGreeting because I thought it would be fun and because I wanted to get some Web-building experience," said Vig, 35, of Roseville.

"I had no expectations of anything coming from it. So getting recognized like this has been a really nice surprise."

Vote for these and other Webby nominees -- including Obama Girl, the Huffington Post and the New York Times -- through May 1 at pv.webbyawards.com. (You'll need to register to vote.)