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Just in time for TED’s holiday break, we’re excited to announce a feature we’re launching, today, on TED.com. It’s called Best of the Web, and just like the rest of TED.com, it involves riveting talks by remarkable people. But unlike TEDTalks, these talks don’t come from TED or any of our partner conferences. These talks come from all over the Web. We’ll draw from any source — from lectures at little-known forums to famous speeches that made history — so long as the video is available for free, and so long as the talk meets our most important benchmark: that it’s an Idea Worth Spreading.

Over the next weeks and months, you’ll see the Best of the Web collection grow to include a large variety of great talks on technology, entertainment, design and all the other topics you can find on TED.com. We’ll actively seek out great talks and performances, but we also want your help! We hope you’ll forward us any gem you think we should include in the collection — no matter how obscure or well-known it is. Simply email contact@ted.com with “Best of the Web suggestion” in the subject line, and a link to where the talk can be seen.

You might be wondering why we’re featuring video from outside TED. Here are a few of our reasons:

To highlight all ideas worth spreading — whatever their source, wherever they emerge.

To bring exposure to great talks that might not otherwise have found a wide audience.

To create a more comprehensive network of ideas, linked and tagged in a way that allows cross-referencing.

To show how big ideas from the past are still relevant today.

To give our online TED community the chance to participate together in the conversation about these talks.

Every Best of the Web talk will get its own page on TED.com, complete with all the tools that accompany TEDTalks: recommendations for similar or relevant talks, information about the speakers, and ways to quickly share the talk with your social network. Most importantly, each will have its own commenting section, so you can discuss these talks within the TED community.

Note: The Best of the Web talks will not interrupt or diminish the daily flow of TEDTalks.

We hope you’ll explore our (for the moment, tiny) collection of the very Best of the Web. And we hope you’ll bookmark the page and check back soon, as we’ll be adding more. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

The Best of the Web collection (so far):

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die >>

Michael Sandel: What’s the right thing to do? >>

Cat Laine: Engineering a better life for all >>