''net'' was a monthly print
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
that published content on
web development
Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications ...
and
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...
. Founded in 1994, the magazine was published in the
UK by
Future plc
Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...
. It was widely recognized as the premiere print publication for
web design
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
ers.
The magazine was initially aimed at the general Internet user, but was adapted into a title aimed at professional and novice
web designer
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
s; a significant proportion of its readers were full-time web developers. Its sister publication, the
web design
Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...
-focused Creative Bloq
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...
, is estimated to receive over 10 million monthly readers according to analytics firm
SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb Ltd. is an Israeli web analytics company specializing in web traffic and performance. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, the company has 12 offices worldwide. Similarweb went public on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2021.
History
The c ...
.
The company, and its parent
Future plc
Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...
, were also known for their annual The Net Awards, which was an awards body recognizing outstanding achievements in the
web development
Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications ...
industry.
The magazine ended publication in June 2020.
History
The magazine was founded in 1994, originally titled as ".net", with the first issue appearing in December. Its then editor was Richard Longhurst and assistant editor was
Ivan Pope
Ivan Pope (born 1961) is a British technologist, involved in a number of early internet developments in the UK and across the world, including coining the term '' cybercafe'' at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. He was a founder of two of ...
. It was initially aimed at the general Internet user in the early days of the
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
and
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...
gaining wider momentum.
In August 2006 (Issue 152), the magazine was redesigned to include a new themed cover design and a new inner layout. Other changes were the addition of a new section at the back of the magazine called ''Trash'' replacing comics by
drew and the Hi! Monkey Soon after the redesign a column entitled ''Web Drifter'' was introduced; written by
Martin Sargent
Martin Sargent is an American television personality and was co-host of the This WEEK in FUN podcast with Sarah Lane. He is most well known from his time as a Segment Producer on TechTV's '' The Screen Savers'' and later as the host of his ow ...
, it usually contained issues and language considered vulgar by the readership, and it was subsequently cancelled.
Also in August 2006, the ''Penny Forum'' section was removed but reinstated for issue 153 onwards due to large reader response to its removal. Another addition was ''Web Pro'' in the latter half of the magazine. This is sectioned into several topics (web security, careers, search engine news and web hosting) and written by industry professionals. There is also a web
FAQ section.
In December 2013 (issue 248) it was re-badged as "net" (magazine) to end confusion with Microsoft's
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...
which launched in 2002. Along with the name change the magazine was given the tagline "The voice of web design".
Future Plc announced in April 2020 that it would cease publication due to commercial reasons with issue 332 (June 2020) being the last.
Net Awards
The ".net" brand was known throughout the web development industry for its long-running annual The Net Awards, which awards outstanding achievements in the field.
The awards recognized the new talent, trends, and technologies that had pushed the web forward over the previous twelve months, as well as recognizing outstanding contributions by established individuals and companies. The annual judging panel was made up of notable industry veterans and thought leaders.
Categories included Agency of the Year, Individual Outstanding Contribution, Developer of the Year, and Best Collaborative Project. Notable past winners include
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...
(redesign of the year),
Dropbox
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. Dropbox was founded in 2007 ...
(mobile app of the year),
Old Spice
Old Spice is an American brand of male grooming products encompassing aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble.
Old Spice was launched as Early American Old Spice by W ...
(viral campaign of the year),
Flickr
Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...
(mobile site of the year), and
Jeffrey Zeldman
Jeffrey Zeldman is an American entrepreneur, web designer, author, podcaster and speaker on web design. He is the co-founder of A List Apart Magazine and the Web Standards Project. He also founded the design studios Happy Cog and studio.zeldman, ...
(web standards advocate).
The annual voting process began with a public nominations phase. In 2015 alone, over 1,000 nominee considerations were submitted. These were whittled down to ten nominees per category by the award's judging body. Next, a public voting phase occurred to allow for community impact to play a role in each project's consideration. Finally, the judges weighed in to determine the winners of each category. Awards were given out live at the year-end ceremony in London.
Conference
net launched its Generate Conference in 2014. The event consisted of a single-track, two-day series of speeches and workshops presented by prominent individuals in the web design industry.
The inaugural conference took place in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, with
Shopify
Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Shopify is the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. The Shopify platform offers online ret ...
and
Badoo
Badoo is a dating-focused social network founded by Russian entrepreneur Andrey Andreev in 2006. It is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus and London, United Kingdom, , with
Media Temple acting as the featured sponsor.
Past speakers included
Dan Cederholm (of
Dribbble),
Jake Archibald (of
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, ...
), Remy Sharp (of Polyfill), Ethan Marcotte (of
responsive web design), and Elliot Jay Stocks (of
Adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...
Typekit
Adobe Fonts (formerly Typekit) is an online service that provides its subscribers with access to its font library, under a single licensing agreement. The fonts may be used directly on websites, or synced via Adobe Creative Cloud to applications ...
).
References
External links
*
The Net Awards
{{Future plc
1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
2020 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1994
Magazines disestablished in 2020
Net
Web awards