Jacob Mullins

Microsoft BizSpark is again proud to be the title sponsor of the second annual startup Accelerator at SXSW, taking place over two days March 15-16, 2010 in Austin, Texas. Last year's inaugural BizSpark Accelerator was a hit generating over 200 startup company applications from across the US, culminating in four winners in each category Popcuts (music), TubeMogul (video), Weardrobe (social networking), and Ribbit (innovative web).

The search is on again for this year's top startups in the following categories, application deadline is less than one month away – December 4, 2009!

• Entertainment Technologies – This category pertains to applications and technologies for film, music, television, and gaming, as well as new and hybrid forms of entertainment that are reinventing the ways in which we relax, unwind, and have fun
• Green / Non-Profit – This category pertains to applications and technologies that make the world a better place. Entrants will include non-profit initiatives, Government 2.0 technologies, energy efficiency applications and frameworks, "social media for the social good," and more
• Innovative Web Technologies – This category pertains to applications and technologies that have the ambition to change the Web as we know it. Right now we're seeing lots of innovation in real-time search, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and the semantic web, recommendations technologies, personalization technologies, and "big data," but this is just the beginning
• Social Media and Social Networking Technologies – This category pertains to applications and technologies that help people connect. With this category we're looking for new and interesting use cases, as well as technologies that push the boundaries of how we find, follow and share information with others

For more information on the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW click here. To submit your company to the Accelerator click here; if you are a BizSpark company you can get a reduced application fee, to request please contact Chris Valentine at SXSW at chris [at] sxsw [dot] com.