It's the end of the year and, naturally, a time for prizes and presents. Christmas cheer is all around us and many try to spread it out as well. Yahoo!, on the other hand, has decided to tell the world what it thinks about the impact that some sites have had on the Internet as a whole, on its users and rank them accordingly.

The forty sites chosen by the Sunnyvale based company have been separated into eight distinct categories namely Charity, Educational, Ethical, Innovative, Social, Shopping, Travel and Weird & Wonderful. You can find the list here, as I'm sure you'll be racing towards that last one. There, you'll be able to vote for your favorite among all and then, if you want, you could just kick back and enjoy looking at some of the previous years' winners in the respective tab.

The award ceremony from Yahoo! is not a tradition that has been going on for many years, just the previous four have had the honor of having it take place amidst them, but it marks the continuous development of the Internet and its sites, resources, capabilities and capacities in all domains.

Web User notes that "among the sites chosen by Yahoo are a scheme that allows people to park at someone else's house to avoid parking fines and a property search engine that shows you the proximity of schools and supermarkets."

The final results will be made public on January 7th, and take good heed, as you still have 29 days left to vote for the "People's Choice". If you want to, you'd better make it fast, just to get it off your "to do" list, and while you're at it, you could glance at the trophy that is featured on the page: a golden Yahoo!. Now, I'm not a particular fan of the name, but I sure wouldn't mind taking that one home.