The Golden Kitty Awards had an incredible ten–year run. They gave us chaos, memes, surprise winners, and some truly unhinged celebration GIFs. We loved them. But the world of product launches isn’t living in 2015 anymore, and pretending it is would be weird.
Especially with AI exploding, new categories appear almost every month. A flashy launch is great, but it tells only a tiny part of the story. The real signal now comes from what happens after the hype fades. Who is earning trust? Who is shipping? Who is actually getting users to stick around?
So we built something new.
The Orbit Awards are our next chapter. They are quarterly, not yearly, and they focus on traction, not noise. They are powered by verified reviews, with extra weight on detailed reviews and founder reviews.
Orbit lets us highlight the categories that are moving fast in real time. AI Dictation. AI Code Editors. AI Automation. Whatever takes shape next month. Instead of waiting a year to celebrate a handful of products, we can now spotlight the ones that are actually climbing.
The very first edition drops on Dec 1 and focuses on AI Dictation. It includes the tools that have been moving the fastest this season: Wispr Flow, MacWhisper, Aqua Voice, Superwhisper, Willow Voice, and more.
Future categories will include Vibecoding tools, AI automation builders, AI meeting note-takers, coding agents, and more.
If you want to be in the running for future Orbit Awards, double check your product’s category on Product Hunt and hit up your audience to review your product. Orbit is fueled by review activity inside each category, so being in the right one matters.
We will always appreciate the Golden Kitties, but the ecosystem has outgrown them. Launches are louder, cycles are shorter, and momentum is the new metric. Orbit Awards tell a better story of what is breaking out and where the energy really is. It gives founders something sharper to point to than “I won a thing once.” You can now say you are leading your category in a specific moment of time.
And yes, winners get an Orbit hat and a sweet pair of socks. You can choose any size you want, as long as it is medium.