Recently in Contests Category

By Izah Morales The Philippine Blog Awards (PBA) is set to recognize more blogs this year, orga nizers said. This yearâs PBA will give away 36 awards under 3 divisions, namely Best Blog, B est Single Blog Post, and Special Awards divisions, and 15 categories, organize rs said. Last year, PBA only gave 15 awards to local bloggers. "This shows that the Filipino blogging community is actually growing," said PBA vice head and chief executive officer Juned Sonido in an interview. For this year, a total of 600 nominees joined the PBA. About 5 to 10 nominees w ill be judged per category. Blogs will be generally judged based on content design and usability, but the B est Blog Post division will be evaluated based solely on content, organizers sa id. Judges were tapped to choose the winning blogs. However, bloggers and readers a re given the chance to vote for their favorite blog under the Bloggersâ Choice Award category. According to a Universal McCann study, the Philippines has the highest growth r ate in âblogging engagementsâ in 3 years. The country has also exceeded the glo bal average for blog readership â 72.8 percent in 2008 âgrowing form 33 percent in September 2006 to 64 percent in June 2007, and 90.3 percent in May 2008. With more blogs becoming more "mainstream," Sonido said bloggers should now be more responsible for what they write. âEach blog is a representation of your id ea on the internet. Itâs like a kaleidoscope of ideas,â he added. The Philippine Blog Awards is scheduled on September 21, 2008 at the One Esplan ade.

CONGRATULATIONS to Benj Arriola, who has made every Filipino proud by winning the SEO World Championship. Not only that, but he will bring home the first prize -- a brand new Citroen C2 . Here's an excerpt from Abe's blog entry:

Fellow Pinoy blogger and SEO specialist Benj Arriola won the recently concluded SEO World Championship (blogged ab out it more than 3 months ago) sponsored by GetUpdated/EastPoint. Not only does Benj gets the bragging rights as a kick-ass SEO champ, he also ge ts to take home a brand new car â a Citro[e]n C2. Read all about Benjâs thank y ou speech here. *hehe* The complete list of contest winners can be found here. And that kick-ass Citro[e]n C2 prize is not a brand o f bottled ice tea but a car.

I WAS having a chat several days ago with Minic Rivera over iChat video. We wer e "showing off" local junk food (Minic resides in the US) -- Chippy for him and Oishi Potato Chips for me. I won when I showed him my Burger Machine Sans Riva l. We were basically reminiscing about the good things that we Pinoys love -- a nd take for granted here in the motherland. In between snacks, Minic opened my eyes to a new project he was developing called The Pinoy.TV, which launched today.

The Pinoy.TV is a monthly online video festival based on themes tha t pertains to Filipinos and the Philippines, in general. You do not have to be a filmmaker to join. As long as you have a story to tell and share with us about the theme, then we want you. No acting is necessary. We want real videos from real stories.

The video with the highest rating at the end of the month will get the theme prize of $100 and tons of bragging rights.

There was an interesting philosophy behind the project. According to Minic, Fil ipinos who are born and raised in foreign lands don't get to really connect wit h our national heritage as Filipinos. And I'm not talking about the cheesy nati onal heroes or historical landmarks. The Pinoy.TV aims to help educate Filipino s (and our friendly neighbors) from around the world about their heritage and w hat it truly means to be Filipino. Our heritage surrounds us -- from the malls, to the food, to the bars and music, to the beautiful beaches... the list goes on. And look here. The first contest theme is already up:

"I am a Filipino." But before anything, please take note of the following dates: ⢠Entries may be submitted from March 5 to March 31, 2007. ⢠Winner will be announced on April 1, 2007. ⢠Winner will get the prize within five (5) days after the announcement. Will you be the next The Pinoy.TV< /a> idol? Sali na!