Gaia Online wins over Mashable

The highlight of the 2011 Mashable Awards handed out at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this weekend was the social gaming site Gaia Online taking the laurels for Best Website User Experience.

“Our community is the heart and soul of Gaia Online. We are incredibly honored to have been chosen by our members and peers for this distinguished award,”” said Mike Sego, CEO of Gaia Online. “”Gaia is truly committed to providing the best possible experience to our users, which makes the award so fitting. We look forward to continuing to provide a fun, alternative world where creative souls belong.””

Gaia Online offers a truly immersive social gaming platform for members, incorporating gaming mechanics and highly creative artwork in its community. Members value this unique and engaging experience, which consistently places Gaia among the top 5 social media sites for time spent online.

“”The Mashable Community has really grown the Mashable Awards program over the past four years,”” said Pete Cashmore, founder & CEO of Mashable. “”We are grateful to our readers who made this year’s program such a success.””

Now in its fourth year, the Mashable Awards, formerly the Open Web Awards, recognize the year’s best of tech and the web as voted by the Mashable community who cast more than 1.3 million nominations and votes in 25 categories, including “”Best New Gadget,”” “”Best Music Discovery Service”” and “”Must-Follow Brand,”” among others.

The digital influencer- and star-studded gala, held at the New York, New York hotel, was hosted by The Onion’s Baratunde Thurston and featured performances from Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity and audio-visual entertainers Eclectic Method. Major consumer electronic innovators, including Aro Ford, BlackBerry, Influxis, LG and Yahoo, signed on to support the event.

“