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Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, the co-founders of YouTube, were honored with the Webby Person of the Year Award during the 11th Annual Webby Awards. Explore more iconic moments from famous websites.
Image courtesy of The Webby AwardsA key distinction between the Webby Awards and other prestigious ceremonies like the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys is that almost no recipient of a Webby expresses gratitude to the academy.
Despite that, the Webbys share several similarities with other major industry awards. Along with their iconic names, trophies, and ceremonies, the Webbys, Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys all depend on expert panels to choose the winners. Additionally, these awards are among the most esteemed honors in their respective fields.
In this piece, we will explore what the Webby Awards represent and how they've evolved alongside the very online excellence they celebrate. You'll also discover why most Webby winners don’t thank the academy, despite its existence.
History of the Webby Awards
Tiffany Schlain, Founder and Ambassador of the Webby Awards, speaks to the audience at the 10th annual Webby Awards ceremony.
Image courtesy of The Webby AwardsLet’s dive into the history of the Webby Awards. The ceremony first took place in 1996, at a time when the Internet wasn’t nearly as ubiquitous. The awards were funded by donations from a magazine called The Web, honoring sites across 15 categories. Around 700 people gathered for the inaugural Webby ceremony, which was hosted at a San Francisco nightclub.
In 1998, The Web ceased its operations, and the newly established International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences took over the responsibility of the Webby Awards. This Academy continues to thrive today, comprising a voting body of digital professionals, industry leaders, and more. Its mission is to honor and promote exceptional Internet content and provide educational and networking opportunities for both technology experts and the general public. Similar to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, membership in the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences is by invitation only.
As the dot-com boom soared, so did the Webby Awards. By 2000, around 3,000 people filled the San Francisco Opera House for the ceremony. However, after the dot-com bubble burst in 2002, the scale of the event shrank significantly, with just 600 attendees at an event that felt more like a conference than a grand awards show. In 2003, the Webby Awards briefly moved online, recognizing sites across 30 categories through a virtual ceremony.
Following the recovery from the dot-com crash, the Webby Awards began to flourish once more. By the 13th annual ceremony in 2009, the awards recognized winners from around 10,000 entries submitted from over 60 countries globally [source: Webby Awards].
Today, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences boasts over 750 members, and the 2010 edition of the awards featured more than 100 categories. The winners are no longer just Websites you visit on your computer. The Academy has broadened its reach to include mobile-friendly sites and services, and now also honors achievements in interactive advertising and online film and video.
Next, we’ll explore how the academy determines the winners and why receiving the coveted spiral trophy is considered such a prestigious accolade.
Webby Selection Process
The Webby trophy
Image courtesy of The Webby AwardsThe selection process for the Webby Awards is similar to that of other prominent awards. Individuals connected to Websites, or those authorized to represent them, submit their entries to the Academy and pay an entry fee. This fee does not guarantee an award but ensures the site’s place in the pool of nominees. This process is comparable to the Emmy Awards nomination procedure but differs from the Grammy Awards, where members of the Recording Academy nominate artists for awards.
Web-based companies can submit their work in four categories:
- Web
- Interactive advertising, such as banner ads and viral campaigns
- Online film and video, which was introduced as a separate category with its own ceremony at the 11th annual Webby Awards
- Mobile Web, referring to sites accessible from your mobile device
To qualify for a Webby Award, sites must meet the following requirements:
- Be active for at least part of the year before the ceremony
- Remain accessible even after the ceremony has concluded
- Be free of hate speech or adult content
Sites that compete must also be accessible to the mostly English-speaking Academy members. For non-English language film and video entries, they must be dubbed into English so that the judges can follow them.
After the nomination period ends, site experts from various fields evaluate the entries. These reviewers are prohibited from discussing their assessments with others, and they cannot evaluate sites where they have a conflict of interest. A minimum of two judges reviews each site, and the results are compiled into a shortlist of finalists. Academy members then review the shortlist and narrow the selections down to five nominees per category.
The Academy uses specific judging criteria for websites, videos, ads, and mobile apps. The overall experience is considered in all categories. When evaluating websites and mobile sites, judges examine various factors such as content, layout, navigation, visual appeal, functionality, and interactivity. Advertising entries are assessed for creativity and integration, while video and film entries are judged on the concept, writing, and craftsmanship of the final product. The criteria are weighted according to the site’s purpose.
Academy members are permitted to vote for one site in each category within their area of expertise. The Academy also designates outstanding sites that don’t receive nominations or awards as Official Honorees, with up to 20 percent of entries qualifying for this distinction. The public is also allowed to vote — in each category, the site with the highest number of public votes is granted the People's Voice Award. All voting is conducted online, and an independent firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, ensures that the final counts are accurate.
In 2010, the selection process for the Webby Awards involved narrowing down over 10,000 entries from all 50 U.S. states and more than 60 countries. Now, let’s take a closer look at what happens once the votes are counted and the awards are ready to be presented.
The Webby Ceremony
At the Webby Film & Video Awards, Ninja from Ask A Ninja, along with Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, the masterminds behind the Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment, and Kent Nichols, creator of Ask A Ninja, were all in attendance at the ceremony.
Photo courtesy The Webby AwardsAfter the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences makes its final decisions, the Webby Award winners are revealed during official ceremonies. In 2010, the Webby Awards were announced on May 4, while the Annual Webby Gala took place in New York City on June 14. Winners are presented with certificates and statuettes designed to resemble springs etched with binary code.
One unique feature of the Webby Awards ceremony is its strict limit on acceptance speeches. Unlike other major award shows, such as the Oscars, where winners face a time constraint, the Webby Awards impose an even more stringent rule. Recipients must convey their message in five words or fewer. Here are a few examples of the five-word speeches from the 2009 ceremony, listed on the Webby Awards official site:
