A strong statement from an influential celebrity can do wonders for a tech product, person or company, as evidenced most obviously by Oprah touting Amazon's Kindle last year. Today's category in The Flashies: Celebrity Tech Endorsement of 2009. And the nominees are:

Continue reading for descriptions of the nominees.

As with previous categories, free to offer a write-in candidate in the comments below. Other readers will be able to support your nomination by logging in and clicking the "like" button next your comment. We'll announce all the Flashies winners in a post at the end of the year.

Goldthwait (Flickr photo/Brad Searles)

Bobcat Goldthwait and Dean Cain for Internet Explorer: Goldthwait directed a series of online videos, starring Cain, to promote Microsoft's web browser. At the very least, this definitely qualifies as one of the most memorable endorsements of the year, with one of the videos turning out to be so gross that Microsoft pulled it after people objected. But was it a good endorsement? We'll leave that to you to decide.

Bono (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Bono's Birthday Shout-Out to Bill Gates: This wasn't a plug for a product, but as celebrity endorsements go, it doesn't get much better than what Bono did for Bill Gates during U2's October concert in Vancouver, B.C. "Without him, and without his business, we just wouldn't be where we are today. It's his birthday today. Bill Gates is in the house," Bono said, before leading the cheering crowd in a rendition of "Happy Birthday."

Ellen on Barnes & Noble's Nook: As a counterpoint to Oprah's 2008 endorsement of the Kindle, talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres plugged the competing Nook on her show this holiday season, giving away the device to to people attending a taping of her show. Those audience members turned out to be some of the rare few recipients of the Nook this season, thanks to supply issues that hampered the debut of the B&N device.

Timberlake (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Justin Timberlake for Sony Reader: Not to be outdone, Sony trotted out celebrities including Justin Timberlake and Peyton Manning for a campaign touting products including its Reader devices. That said, even though it was in a commercial, this doesn't exactly qualify as the strongest of endorsements. In the Reader ad, Manning does nothing more than nod slightly, and Timberlake's contribution isn't exactly resounding. See the full video here.

Jimmy Fallon on Project Natal: "Oh my God, this is awesome!" the late-night host declared when he got a chance to try Microsoft's motion-sensitive Xbox 360 controller on his show. As endorsements go, it doesn't get much more positive than that, but unfortunately for Microsoft, there's no product in the market yet to benefit from all the buzz. Project Natal isn't expected out until sometime in 2010. Video of the segment here.

Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5: The late Seattle grunge rock icon probably wouldn't have stood for this, but his avatar played along willingly in the latest installment of the music game. "Kurt Cobain is one of the most recognizable frontmen in rock 'n' roll history and it's an honor to have two of Nirvana's masterpieces included in Guitar Hero 5," an Activision exec said at the time. Courtney Love was less than pleased, reportedly objecting (to put it mildly) to aspects of the game including the Cobain avatar lip-syncing to Bon Jovi.