Almost a year ago, I reported on CrunchGear’s first birthday party; it was a quirky and predictable mix of beer and gear. The guys had a good show of fans, but altogether we barely filled the second-floor.

I'm drawing my own conclusion that alongside our own personal and professional online networks, both tech and social scenes have converged in popular, near-trendy ways. The result in this case? A pretty hot CrunchGear party. The line to get into Manhattan’s Red Sky wrapped around the block and the party extended to all three levels of the bar. Passersby must have gotten a good chuckle as so many of the patient partygoers had iPhones in hand and were typing away as they waited to go inside.

The large crowd is definitely evidence of CrunchGear’s increasingly excellent coverage of the gadget market and their rapidly growing audience. But, the fanfare and excitement about the event and those who were waitlisted and still showed, speaks more to the mainstream's love for gadgetry, and the social networking phenomenon that has blown out the tech business. I met several interesting folks who I've "friended" through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.