Just The Best Tech Lists of 2008

Year-in-review lists are all the rage right now. Everyone's counting down the top this-or-that of 2008, and amidst the noise, there's some pretty interesting content out there. I dug through dozens of tech-related "top of 2008" lists to find the cream of the crop. Here are 10 stories that stood out from the rest -- and no, I didn't include this page as one of them.

1. 50 Wonderfully Geeky Moments of 2008 (Asylum)

From the government using "World of Warcraft" to track terrorists to a Hollywood hottie's reluctance to get up close and personal at Comic-Con, the folks at AOL's Asylum blog found 50 fun and funny geek-friendly moments from the year. There's plenty here to keep you busy and entertained. Oh, and the first slide shows Megan Fox wearing a rather tight and short Star Wars shirt. Enough said.

2. Most Viewed Photos of 2008 (National Geographic)

A picture's worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, and National Geographic knows how to capture a moment in an image. The magazine put together a compilation of its 10 most viewed online photo galleries of 2008. One photo tells the story of Hurricane Ike through the face of a single woman; another shows an alien-like squid creature observed at an oil drilling site (a Digg favorite). These are some images worth revisiting or seeing for the first time.

3. Top 12 Tech Embarrassment of 2008 (TechCult)

2008 had its share of tech-related slip-ups, and now's the time to look back and laugh (or cringe). Whether it's the year's "Most Embarrassing Service Lifespan" -- congrats, Lively by Google -- or an NFL player's all-baring blog in the "Most Embarrassing Online Exposure" category, you're bound to find a chuckle in this collection. Also, I hear the writer is one hell of a guy, and far too modest to ever do something like put his own story into a "top 10" list.