About.com has opened the nomination period for its fifth annual Readers' Choice Awards, which honor the best products, features and services across dozens of categories, ranging from technology to hobbies to parenting and more.

Beginning today through February 15, readers can nominate their favorite can't-live-without-it product or service, such as the best budget airline, mascara or e-mail service. Finalists, as selected by About.com category experts, will then advance to the final round of voting, which will take place from February 22 to March 21, 2012. The winners in each category will be announced on March 30, 2012.

"About.com's Readers' Choice Awards give users a chance to voice their opinions about the best products across some of our most popular categories," said Margot Weiss, managing editor, About.com. "Each year we are impressed by readers' enthusiasm and involvement with the awards program, which directly speaks to their engagement with their favorite topics on About.com. We look forward to sharing on March 30 which products and services resonated most with About readers in the past year."

Recipients of the Readers' Choice Awards will have the exclusive opportunity to display the coveted About.com Readers' Choice Awards badge on their Web site.

This year, the About.com Readers' Choice Awards categories include: autos, careers, business & finance, cities & towns, computing & technology, education, electronics & gadgets, entertainment, food & drink, health, industry & trade, hobbies, home & garden, parenting, people, religion, sports, style and travel.

To learn more about this year's Readers' Choice Awards program, submit nominations or access important dates throughout the awards nomination and voting process, visit http://awards.about.com.

Now in its fifth year, the Readers' Choice Awards evolved from About.com's popular IM (Instant Messaging) Readers' Choice Awards, which began in 2008.

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About The About Group

The About Group comprises the Web sites About.com, ConsumerSearch.com and CalorieCount.com. About.com is a valuable resource for content that helps users solve the large and small needs of everyday life. ConsumerSearch.com analyzes expert and user-generated consumer product reviews and recommends the best products to purchase based on the findings. CalorieCount.com is an online resource that helps users solve the everyday challenges of losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle.

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading global, multimedia news and information company with 2010 revenues of $2.4 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, NYTimes.com, BostonGlobe.com, Boston.com, About.com and related properties. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

This press release can be downloaded from www.nytco.com

The New York Times Company
Kristin Mason, 212-204-1984
kmason@about.com