Last year expressmilwaukee.com, the sister website of the Shepherd Express, created the Best of Milwaukee Web Awards to honor the city’s best websites, blogs, social media pioneers and technological innovators, as well as the online personalities that keep us informed (or the ones that just give us something funny to read when we should probably be working). Our goal was to celebrate the city’s online culture, and to recognize the people who are using the Internet to advance independent businesses, local artists and deserving causes. Collectively, these self-starters complement the Shepherd Express and expressmilwaukee.com in helping us make Milwaukee a better-informed, tighter-knit and just plain more fun community.

This year we again called on our expressmilwaukee.com readers to vote for their favorite online presences, and once again they did not disappoint. This year’s Best of Milwaukee Web Awards winners are a nearly equal mix of repeat champions and new faces, and they include a handful of blogs and websites that weren’t even around when we launched these awards last year but have already made an impression. Once again, the Shepherd Express and expressmilwaukee.com were ineligible for these awards—we’d have an unfair advantage, since expressmilwaukee.com was hosting these awards—but we do hope you’ll visit our site for daily news, arts and music coverage, and we’re sure you’ll find at least a few new favorite sites to bookmark in this list of winners and runners-up.

Blogs

News Blog “A Sinner Observes” by Lester Schultz

Runners-Up: Between the Bars School Matters MKE

Fashion Blog Cream City and Sugar

Runners-Up: MODA3 HypeMKE.com

Arts Blog Art vs. Craft

Runners-Up: ART Milwaukee Local Trolley

Music Blog Seizure Chicken

Runners-Up: Localplaylist.com Milwaukee UP

Sports Blog Miller Park Drunk

Runners-Up: Disciples of Uecker Brew Crew Ball

Personal Blog The Parkland Project

Runners-Up: Cream City and Sugar PipeDreamsReal.com

Politics Blog Cognitive Dissidence

Runners-Up: Blogging Blue “A Sinner Observes” by Lester Schultz

Food Blog Wisconsin Foodie

Runners-Up: Burp! (eatatburp.com) YourMilwaukeeDining.com

Neighborhood Blog Between the Bars

Runners-Up: SouthMilwaukeeBlog.com Cream City and Sugar

Social Media

Favorite Twitterer @DudeFoods

Runners-Up: @HouseofBrew @EatMKE

Funniest Twitterer @DudeFoods

Runners-Up: @bootyp @edcetera

Most Compulsive Twitterer @bootyp

Runners-Up: @JCPoppe @Sawaboof

“Fake” or Impostor Twitterer @MillerParkHawk

Runners-Up: @thebusbandit @govwalkernot

Best Use of Twitter to Promote a Business @AJBombers

Runners-Up: @MeetMeme @pitabros

Best Use of Facebook to Promote a Business Point Fish Fry & A Flick

Runners-Up: Eat MKE AJ Bombers

Video Production for the Web Mindpool

Runners-Up: Tanner-Monagle High Frequency Media

Flickr Pool Cream City Milwaukee

Runners-Up: High Frequency Media Guess Where Milwaukee!

Local Tumblr Fine Line Magazine

Runners-Up: Fuck Yeah, Brew City MilkDoesABodyGood

Band/Musician Online Presence IfIHadAHiFi

Runners-Up: Call Me Lightning Fatty Acids

Locally Built iPhone App Wisconsin Humane Society

Runners-Up: Shindig Red Letter Media

Online Classes/University Marquette University

Runners-Up: Waukesha County Technical College Cardinal Stritch University

Websites

Nightlife Site Do414.com

Runners-Up: Cactus Club The Rave

Restaurant Site Milwaukee Cupcake Co.

Runners-Up: Smoke Shack Classic Slice

Best Designed Site Pabst/Turner/Riverside

Runners-Up: Red Hat Collaborative EatMKE.com

Local Activism Site Growing Power

Runners-Up: Urban Milwaukee Milwaukee County First

Radio Station Site 88Nine Radio Milwaukee

Runners-Up: FM 102.1 FM 106.1

TV Station Site fox6now.com

Runners-Up: todaystmj4.com wisn.com

Runners-Up: OnMilwaukee.com mkescene.com

Music Venue Site Pabst/ Turner/Riverside