The Webbys are awarded by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.  I’d never heard of it before, but I recognized several names: the Academy includes musicians Beck and David Bowie, artist and animator Matt Groening, Virgin’s Richard Branson, and Harvey Weinstein, among many others.  All told, the group contains over 750 names.  It’s impressive that they had the foresight to begin issuing these awards in 1996, when the Internet was only a seedling of the megalithic network it has grown into.

Every year, more than 100 categories are judged, divided among Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video.  In addition, each category has two winners: one selected by the Academy’s judges and one chosen by online voters (“The People’s Voice Award”).

The Webby ceremony has grown into quite the event, and this year’s was no different.  Held on June 14 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, the event was hosted by B.J. Novak, actor/writer for The Office.  Perhaps his performance in the 2^nd season premiere, “The Dundies”, was an inspiration—the episode centered around an office awards ceremony.

Another feature of the ceremony is the signature five-word acceptance speeches.  Several winners had obviously prepared theirs.  Vinton Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award and said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”  Andrey Ternovskiy won the Breakout of the Year Award for his site, ChatRoulette.com, and said, “Internet is a cool thing.”  Zach Galifianakis, star of The Hangover, won Best Actor for his Internet series Between Two Ferns.  His speech: “How am I on time?”

Entering costs $125, or $75 for nonprofit categories.  While this entry price is a little steep, the IMAs offer over 70 very specific categories, improving your chances of winning—you won’t be judged against a site of an entirely different genre.  However, the categories are dispersed over the four quarters of the year, so only a certain number can be entered at any given time.  The Council also emphasizes the rewards that can come with winning an IMA, including highlighting your site’s expertise in a specific industry and getting an evaluation by qualified professionals.

While the announcement ceremony may not be as exciting as the Webbys, there is no shortage of winners.  You can easily search the winner archives, or you can look at the Top 10 Sites for each of the last four years.  These winners are selected by a panel of Judges from the sites with the best scores among the “Best in Class” sites.  Sites are judged on five criteria: Design, Content, Feature Functionality, Usability, and Standards Compliance/Cross-Browser Capability.  With more companies vying for the IMAs, we should see better sites all around, which should mean less wasted hours trying to figure out exactly where to click.  If that sounds good to you, check out the Interactive Media Awards site to find out who’s doing it right.

• Don’t distract your visitors with moving text, animations, or sound. These sorts of movements, which aren’t initiated by the user, are distracting to the point of rudeness.  They also make for long load times for users with slow connections.  People won’t be patient for something they haven’t asked for.  On the same note, if the text is scrolling faster than the user can read, they won’t speed up for it.
• Follow HTML standards.  Making sure your code is in standard HTML can be tedious, but it’s worth it for everybody to be able to read your site, no matter what their browser.  This can also make browsing your site more efficient, such as when the browser loads placeholders for images with height and width tags instead of slowing the entire process.  You never know what browser your clients will be using, so prepare for all of them.
• Keep your navigation simple.  Users are more likely to stay on your site if they know how to find what they’re looking for.  It can be useful to design your layout before coding.  If you know you will have too many links on a page, use a drop-down or flyout menu.  Also, always have a link back to a home page/site map so users know where to go if they do somehow get lost.
• Keep your website easy to read on the screen.  Nobody wants to scroll across a giant page.  Lines of text should be about 600 pixels wide, and the entire page should be visible at 1000 pixels since most users have 1024×768 screens.  You can tradeoff and go lower to accommodate the 10% of users with smaller screens, but this will mean most users will see a lot of wasted space.

The Clio awards are known for their exclusivity.  Less than 10% of submissions make it to the CLIO Shortlist, from which the Gold, Silver, and Bronze statue winners are selected.  Even more impressively, less than 3% of all entries win a statue, with less than 1% receiving the Gold CLIO.  One piece in each medium may also be awarded the prestigious Grand CLIO.

It’s fitting that the CLIO awards should be staying so current with modern times, since their name comes from the Greek muse of history, who recorded great deeds and accomplishments as an inspiration to later times.  The CLIO awards also encourage fellowship and humanity, with ambassadors serving in 42 countries.  Like all great awards, the CLIO awards encourage friendly competition and make people strive to accomplish something great.  It’s only fair that websites should have the same opportunity.

This may seem extraneous to you, but consider: if you were doing a paper on accordions, or wanted to play one yourself, wouldn’t you want to know which site is best?  And what if you could also find the best site in almost any other imaginable category?  That’s the thinking behind Beesker, a “recommendation” site that awards the title of “Best On-Topic” site in a variety of fields.  On the home page, you can either search for your subject in the search box, or browse an extensive toolbar.

Beesker is published by Extonet Ltd., a British-based company which also publishes Abacus Construction Index, a directory of the best architecture and construction sites.  Astonishingly, the site lists only two members—Managing Director Dr. Alex Reid and Director Sian Reid.  However, the sites are chosen by individuals or groups with a passion for that subject.

Unlike the Webbys, Beesker takes no money from any websites.  The entire site is supported by Google Ads.  Users can submit their own feedback on any selection, or presumably suggest a new one, as I could find no “Best On-Topic” category for “Comic Books.”  The idea of making a “best-of-the-Internet” directory certainly seems daunting, but Beesker appear to be giving it their best shot.  Stop on by, find your favorite subject, and see if you agree with their selection.