Outside.In Outside.Inhttp://outside.inFinalist NewsMark Josephson; Steven Berlin; Johnson Cory Forsyth; John GeraciOutside.in is a hyperlocal content aggregator - plug in your location and you're served up info from local blogs, news organizations, even Twitter feeds. Use it to learn about restaurant openings, local police activity, real estate news, road work and anything else happening in nearly 12,000 geographic areas. Users who register as "neighbors" can post their own blog content or stories they find on other sites, add locations and post comments. Outside.in logs 1 …

The New York Times nytimes.comwww.NYTimes.comFinalist News Vivian Schiller, general manager The gray lady does news online like none other. Nytimes.com deviates from its print brethren in two major ways: the sheer speed of its breaking news and the breadth of its interactivity options. Case in point: Nytimes.com first broke the news of the Gov. Eliot Spitzer scandal, and, by the day's end, complemented it with an interactive feature detailing Spitzer's career, with links to photos and archived articles. From its clean, unfussy online presentation …

CondéNet portfolio.com Finalist News Ari Brandt, general manager; Dan Colarusso, managing editor; Scott Havens, director, business development; Jen Vossen, director, product management The online home of condé nast's business magazine is as plush and ambitious as the print version. Portfolio.com gives the business world an online destination, stocked with articles, columns and blogs, video and interactive features, and deeper takes on real-time content from ap and Reuters, all easily managed with extensive rss feeds and social bookmarking tools. At peak traffic, the site has more than 3 million …

WonderGroup ToppsTownhttp://www.toppstown.comFinalist Social Networking Matt Fischer; Jeff Jones; Elaine Skeldon; Meredith Miller; Lisa Alexander; Matt Berning; Evan Oliver; Russell Griffith; Lee Calloway; Eric Rohlman; Mark Van Patten; Erica Minto With a parent's help, 8-to-10- year-old sports fans can easily build their avatar and get dug in the dugout. The black and red slippery design, the character welcoming visitors with his goofy face and tighty whities and the sloppy splurty noises in the hot dog canon game are on the money. Navigation is so simple …

The Cradle thecradle.comhttp://www.thecradle.com Finalist Social Networking Hilary Zalon; Amy Fierstein; Laurie Grossman; Heidi Brown; Justin Hayes; Nellie Reed; Melissa Christensen; Sara Watanasirisuk; Anabela Beraudo Stylish, smart and relatable, TheCradle.com is a valuable resource where parents can learn from the experts - other parents. Designed specifically for expectant and new moms, the site offers message boards, groups, one-on-one chat, photo sharing and blogs - all in a soothing color palette (because new moms need that or Valium) with easy navigation to personalized features and tools. An …

CondéNet Epicurioushttp://www.epicurious.com/community/ Finalist Social NetworkingJamie Pallot, editorial director; Tanya Wenman Steel, editor-in-chief Even though the silence of beautiful food is broken by a siege of pop-up ads you can't ignore the clean navigation, soothing color palette, and ease of joining at Epicurious. The top nav is tinier than a string of lemon zest, but everything is easy to find. The tabbed interface enabling recipe sharing (and rating!), with fun items like "fridge door" as a place to welcome comments, and a clearly categorized way to …

Magnani Caruso Dutton Sesame Street, sesamestreet.org Finalist EntertainmentIan Magnani, account director; John Caruso, creative director; John Dutton, design direction; Ami Moore, project manager; Tom Simpson, information architecture; Shawn Cheng, art director The redesign of this web site is simple, colorful and vibrant. Live-action characters greet and guide children through the site's interactive features. Sesame Playlists, a blend of videos and games, can be shared with friends and filtered by subject, theme or character. My Street is a customizable space for children and their caregivers. The site hosts …

Gay List Daily gaylistdaily.comhttp://www.gaylistdaily.com/Finalist Entertainment Cooper Smith Gay list daily is not as interactive or highly designed as many of the other contenders. It doesn't have zooming graphics or high-definition anything. However, the Web site absolutely jumps out to the average consumer. Its content is cheeky and entertaining, its interface structure is simple yet swanky, and overall it is functional and engaging. It offers a huge breadth of information and tools, letting the user sign up to receive content about fashion and beauty, home, …

Ensequence Major League Baseball Advanced Media, MLB Mosaic Finalist Entertainment Abaseball fanatic's dream. Baseball fans can watch any broadcast mlb games on their computers (for a fee), and also choose which innings they'd like to watch, create fantasy teams and get realtime updates on their favorite players. Fans can find news, stats, standings and links to team sites. It's a one-stop shop for everything baseball.

Woo Agency wooagency.comhttp://www.wooagency.com Finalist Business-to-Business Valerie Moizel, executive creative director This is a creative, well-thought-out example of tying together all the fundamentals of a good B2B Web site. It is framed by a culture that visually and textually conveys the agency's strategic mo. The Tao of Woo is engaging and informative in explaining the interactive mindset used to breathe life into a brand. The interesting and attractive visuals help to move visitors through each phase of the Web site to reveal a complete answer to …