December 9th, 2008
Sports and Fitness Website Finalists for Mashable Open Web Awards
Mashable’s Open Web Awards is nearing an end. The finalists were announced earlier this month and voting will continue until December 14th when the winners are crowned. Of the 25+ categories, there is a dedicated category for Sports and Fitness related sites. The 3 finalists include FitFiend and Gyminee, which are both health and fitness social networking sites. Both are also relatively new on the scene - in fact, FitFiend is still in Beta.
FitFiend describes itself as a “social network devoted to health, fitness, and athletics. It is a community that connects FitPros and FitFiends.” The site allows users to track workouts and connect with other people (be them fit pros or “fiends” - which I assume is someone totally obsessed with fitness… hrmmmm). One feature that FitFiend seems to promote, and which seems to be helping the community site, is the whole pro to client connection. It’s the Linked-In of the fitness world, perhaps moreso than the MySpace…
Gyminee, on the other hand, seems to be a bit more mature of a website, probably due to it’s relatively longer existence. Gyminee offers much of the same as FitFiend but also includes food tracking, challenges, detailed workout programs, iPhone support and a PRO version, among other things. From a design perspective, Gyminee is stunning, in comparison to FitFiend. Again - this is likely a result of the maturity of the application.
However, the Open Web Awards are nary complete and it’s ultimately up to the community (and circle of influence that the site owners have) which site will be the victor. Regardless of which site wins, both have gained immensly from simply being finalists for the competition and their membership has likely increased as a direct result.
