It may be Thanksgiving this week in the United States, but that means more than just feasting on turkey and stuffing with friends and family. It means the official start to the annual holiday shopping season and international effort to boost the struggling global economy. Those who wish to go beyond the obvious ideas - an investment bank, an auto maker, a small bankrupt country - will be able to read the 2008 TidBITS Gift Guide for suggestions from others in the TidBITS community.

Here's how it works. Readers contribute ideas in TidBITS Talk through 29-Nov-08, then everyone gets to vote for their favorites in an online survey through 07-Dec-08, and we'll publish the top-ranked suggestions on 08-Dec-08.

We've started threads for some broad categories in TidBITS Talk where you can share your ideas for great presents. If you subscribe to TidBITS Talk via email, just reply to a message in the right thread. If you read TidBITS Talk via the Web, you can post via the Web too; scroll down to the bottom of the window in the appropriate thread.

• Hardware Gift Ideas
• Software Gift Ideas
• Game Gift Ideas
• Computer-Related Miscellaneous Ideas
• Non-Technical Ideas for the Macintosh-Minded

Please suggest only one product or idea per message, give the reason why you're recommending it, make sure to include a URL or other necessary contact information, and recommend only others' products. If possible, try to suggest products that haven't appeared in previous gift issues or in last year's "2007 TidBITS Gift Guide" (2007-12-10). To refresh your memory on what readers have suggested previously, check out the last three full gift issues from 2006, 2005, and 2004. Thanks in advance!