This is a list of the people, companies or websites that won the annual

Webby Awards The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

presented by the

International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences or IADAS is an international organization founded in 1998 in New York City to help drive the creative, technical, and professional progress of the Internet and evolving forms of interactive and ...

. The Webby Awards have been dubbed the "internet's highest honor".

1997

1997 was the first year of the annual Webby Award event, which was the first-ever nationally televised awards ceremony devoted to the Internet. 700 people attended the event on March 6, 1997 at Bimbo's Night Club in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Whereas in later years the panelists were official members of

, in 1997 the awards were chosen and given by IDG's ''The Web Magazine'', which appointed a panel to judge the competition.

1998

The 1998 Webby Awards were held on March 6, 1998 at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, and were the first event ever to be broadcast live via the Web in 3D. The "People's Voice" awards, chosen by online poll, received 100,000 cumulative votes that year. The 1998 awards were sponsored by PC World Communications, the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' and other organizations.

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

was the official website to " cybercast" the awards. ''The Web'' magazine, which was hosting the awards, was closed down by its parent company IDG shortly before the awards, and the ceremony continued thereafter under the management of Tiffany Shlain, who IDG had hired in 1996 to coordinate the awards. The

was constituted that year as the judging panel for the awards, continues to do so as of the 2007 awards.

1999

The 1999 Webby Awards were held on March 18, 1999 at the Herbst Theater (

War memorial Opera House The War Memorial Opera House is an opera house in San Francisco, California, located on the western side of Van Ness Avenue across from the west side/rear facade of the San Francisco City Hall. It is part of the San Francisco War Memorial and ...

) in San Francisco, with a post-award party at City Hall. That year, Mayor Rudy Giuliani lobbied to move the ceremony to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, but San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown convinced the organization to remain in San Francisco by promising city support. Brown gave a speech at the ceremony and

Marc Maron Marcus David Maron (born September 27, 1963) is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, and musician. In the 1990s and 2000s, Maron was a frequent guest on the '' Late Show with David Letterman'' and has appeared more than forty ...

was the master of ceremonies. The event was noted for the famous incident in which a representative of Jodi.org, which had won in the arts category, called the event participants "Ugly corporate sons-of-bitches" in his acceptance speech and tossed his trophy to the audience. In 1999 the Webby Awards asked

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounti ...

to help it tabulate and ensure security for the "People's Voice" winners, chosen by online voting.

2000

The 2000 awards were the first time that organization requested submissions. Previously, nominees had been selected by an internal committee. The organization gave out awards in 27 categories voted on by a 350 member judges.

2001

2002

2003

This year marked the first year the awards show was broadcast online, and it lasted 20 minutes. The organization provided 30 awards.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

and

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

won the most honors.

2004

2005

Honorees at 9th Annual Webby Awards included: *''Webby Lifetime Achievement Award'': Former Vice President

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...

in recognition of the role he played in the development of the Internet over the past three decades *''Webby Person of the Year'':

Craig Newmark Craig Alexander Newmark (born December 6, 1952) is an American internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known as the founder of the classifieds website Craigslist. Prior to founding Craigslist, he worked as a computer programmer for companie ...

, the founder of

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums. Craig Newmark began the ...

*''Webby Artist of the Year'': The Kleptones *''Webby Breakout of the Year'': Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, the founders of

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 ...

Webby Awards winners included

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...

USA (Automotive),

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

(Best Practices), Merck (Health), and

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

(Telecommunications).

2006

Honorees at 10th Annual Webby Awards included: * Webby Breakout of the Year: MySpace.com and its founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe * Webby Artist of the Year: Gorillaz * Webby Entrepreneur of the Year: Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and HDNet * Webby Person of the Year: Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of The 21st Century * Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Robert Kahn, co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocols, the technology used to transmit information on today's Internet * Webby Lifetime Achievement Award:

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

, for "visionary" use of the internet, and being the first major artist to release an album over the internet, ''

Crystal Ball A crystal ball, also known as an orbuculum or crystal sphere, is a crystal or glass ball and common fortune-telling object. It is generally associated with the performance of clairvoyance and scrying in particular. In more recent times, the cry ...

''.

2007

Honorees at 11th Annual Webby Awards included: * Webby Lifetime Achievement:

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

was honored for his career which has pushed the boundaries of art and technology – from Ziggy Stardust to BowieNet, the Internet service provider he launched in 1998, to BowieArt, a Web site that connects the new visual artists with art collectors worldwide. * Webby Lifetime Achievement: eBay President and CEO

Meg Whitman Margaret Cushing Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is the US ambassador to Kenya, an American business executive and former gubernatorial candidate for California. She is a board member of Procter & Gamble and General Motors. Whitman was previously ...

accepted the award on behalf of the 150 million registered eBay buyers and sellers * Webby People of the Year: YouTube Co-Founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley * Webby Artist of the Year: Beastie Boys were recognized for their 2006 concert film, "Awesome, I Fucking Shot That", which was filmed entirely by dozens of audience members using hand-held cameras provided by the group. * Two Special Achievement Awards for Acting were presented at the 1st Annual Webby Film and Video Awards: * Best Actor: "Ninja", the star of the online comedy series "Ask a Ninja" * Best Actress: Jessica Rose, star of the fictional video diary "lonelygirl15"

2008

The 2008 Webby Awards took place on June 11, 2008 at the Citriani Restaurant event space on Wall Street in

. Honorees at 12th Annual Webby Awards included: * Webby Lifetime Achievement: David Byrne * Webby Artist of the Year:

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

* Webby Person of the Year:

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program '' The Colbert Report'' from 2005 ...

* Webby Film & Video Lifetime Achievement:

Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...

* Webby Film & Video Awards Person of the Year:

Michel Gondry Michel Gondry (; born 8 May 1963) is a French filmmaker noted for his inventive visual style and distinctive manipulation of mise en scène. Along with Charlie Kaufman, he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as one of the writers ...

* Webby Film & Video Awards Best Actor: Tim and Eric

2009

Winners were honored at a ceremony hosted by Seth Meyers in New York City on June 8. * Webby Artist of the Year:

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

* Webby Person of the Year: Jimmy Fallon * Webby Breakout of the Year:

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

* Best Actress:

Sarah Silverman Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced '' The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...

* Outstanding Comedic Performance:

Lisa Kudrow Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress, producer, and screenwriter. She rose to fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), which has since been named one of the greatest television cha ...

* Film & Video Person of the Year: Seth MacFarlane

2010

Honorees at 14th Annual Webby Awards included: *Web documentary (individual episode): Jam 3 Media/

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

('' Waterlife'')

2011

Winners were honored at a ceremony hosted by ''

'' in New York City on June 13 at the ''

Hammerstein Ballroom The Hammerstein Ballroom is a ballroom located within the Manhattan Center at 311 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The capacity of the ballroom is dependent on the configuration of the room; it seats 2,500 people for theat ...

''. * Webby for Best Drama in the Webby People’s Voice Awards of the Year: ''

Urban Wolf ''Urban Wolf'' is an online non-verbal drama series, with 15 webisodes of 4 minutes long each. The movie was written, produced and directed by Laurent Touil-Tartour. The world premiere and first public screening of the show took place at Comic-Co ...

''. * ''

Welcome to Pine Point ''Welcome to Pine Point'' is a 2011 interactive web documentary by Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge, collectively known as The Goggles, formerly creative directors of ''Adbusters'' magazine. The website explores the memories of residents from ...

'' received two Webbys, for Documentary: Individual Episode in the Online Film & Video category and Netart in the Websites category. * Watson, the computer which competed on ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given gene ...

'', was named Person of the Year. * Webby for Best Individual Performance of the Year: Vincent Sze in ''

2012

Honorees at 16th Annual Webby Awards included: * Webby for Best Real Estate Site (People's Voice): ApartmentList.com * Webby for Artist of the Year: Björk * Webby Person of the Year: Louis C.K. * Webby for Experimental and Innovation (People's Voice): SwiftKey * Webby for best use of photography: '' God's Lake Narrows'' * Webby for best web art: '' Bla Bla''

2013

Honorees at 17th Annual Webby Awards included: *Webby for Person of the Year:

Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...

*Webby for Outstanding Comedic Performance: Jerry Seinfeld *Webby for Artist of the Year:

Grimes (musician) Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has in ...

*Webby for Athlete of the Year: Chris Kluwe *Webby Breakout of the Year: Obama for America Tech team *Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for inventing the GIF: Steve Wilhite *Special Achievement for

Kevin Spacey Kevin Spacey Fowler (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, obtaining supporting roles before gaining a leading man status in film and television. Spacey has received various accolade ...

and

Dana Brunetti Dana Brunetti (born June 11, 1973) is an American media executive, film producer, entrepreneur and co-founder and chief content officer of Cavalry Media. Brunetti has been nominated for two Academy Awards for producing '' The Social Network'' ...

, for House of Cards (U.S. TV series) *Special Achievement for

Burning Love "Burning Love" is a 1972 song by Elvis Presley written by Dennis Linde, originally released by Arthur Alexander earlier in 1972. Elvis Presley had a major hit with the song, becoming his biggest hit single in the United States since "Suspicious M ...

team *People's Voice: Corridor Digital's "The Glitch"

2014

Honorees at 18th Annual Webby Awards included: *Webby for Person of the Year:

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...

*Webby for Artist of the Year: De La Soul *Webby for Athlete of the Year: Jamaican Bobsled Team *Webby Breakout of the Year: Kickstarter *Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for co-founding Creative Commons:

Lawrence Lessig Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...

*Special Achievement for

Freddie Wong Freddie Wong (born September 13, 1985) is an American Internet celebrity, filmmaker, VFX artist, podcaster, and competitive gamer. Wong has participated in at least three YouTube channels; with ''RocketJump'', his production company's main chan ...

, for co-creating Video Game High School *Best Actress:

Taylor Schilling Taylor Jane Schilling (born July 27, 1984) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Piper Chapman on the Netflix original comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she received a nomination for the Pr ...

*Webby Film & Video Person of the Year: Freddie Wong

2015

Honorees at 19th Annual Webby Awards included: *Webby Lifetime Achievement Award to

Louis Rossetto Louis Rossetto is an Americans, American writer, editor, and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder and former editor-in-chief / publisher of ''Wired magazine''. He was also the first investor and the former CEO of TCHO chocolate company. ...

and

Jane Metcalfe Jane Metcalfe is the co-founder, with Louis Rossetto, and former president of Wired Ventures, creator and original publisher of the magazine ''Wired''. Prior to that, Metcalfe managed advertising sales for the Amsterdam-based '' Electric Word'' ...

for publishing

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

*Special Achievement to the ALS

Ice Bucket Challenge The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person's head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyo ...

*Outstanding Comedic Performance to

Chelsea Peretti Chelsea Vanessa Peretti (born February 20, 1978) is an American comedian, actress, television writer, singer, and songwriter. She is best known for portraying Gina Linetti in the comedy series '' Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' and writing for '' Parks and ...

*Best Actress to Ellie Kemper *Best Actor to

Tituss Burgess Tituss Burgess (born February 21, 1979) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in numerous Broadway musicals and is known for his high tenor voice. He is best known for starring as Titus Andromedon on the Netflix comedy series '' Unb ...

*Breakout of the Year to

Tinder Tinder is easily combustible material used to start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder until it bursts into flame. The flaming tinder i ...

*Game (Tablet & All Other Devices) to Monument Valley

2016

Honorees at 20th Annual Webby Awards included: *Webby Lifetime Achievement to ''

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satire, satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on ...

'' for humor *Special Achievement to

Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series ''Girls (TV series), Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy ...

Jennifer Konner Jennifer A. Konner (born May 15, 1971) is an American television writer, producer and director. She is best known as co-showrunner and writer with Lena Dunham of the HBO series ''Girls.'' In 2016, she directed the season finale of the fifth seas ...

for ''

Lenny Letter Lenny or Lennie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lenny (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Lennie (surname), a list of people * Lenny (singer) (born 1993), Czech songwriter Arts and entertainment Music * '' ...

'' *Outstanding Comedic Performance to

*Best Actress to

Krysten Ritter Krysten Alyce Ritter (born December 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She came to prominence when she appeared as Jane Margolis in the AMC drama series ''Breaking Bad'' (2009–2010) and its spinoff film '' El Camino'' (2019). She th ...

*Artist of the Year to

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

*Film & Video Breakout of the Year to ''

Making a Murderer ''Making a Murderer'' is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in pri ...

'' *Best Writing to '' Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' *Best Game to Justin Hook for '' Google Feud''

2017

Honorees at 21st Annual Webby Awards included: * Lifetime Achievement:

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* Activism: Women's Footprint in History by

UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls, and foc ...

* Music video:

Coldplay Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University ...

* Best Streaming Video:

HBO Now HBO Now (formally named HBO from July 2020) was an American subscription video on demand streaming service for premium television network HBO owned by WarnerMedia subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc. Officially unveiled on March 9 and launched on A ...

* Games:

Pokémon Go ''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game, part of the ''Pokémon'' franchise, developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android ...

* Music:

Mark Ronson Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British-American DJ, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He is best known for his collaborations with artists such as Duran Duran, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, R ...

2018

2019

2020

Notes

In keeping with the awards themselves, winners are designated according to the website winning the award, although the winner is, technically, 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 ...

firm that created the winning site and in the case of

corporate website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wikipe ...

s, the designer's client. Web links are provided for informational purposes where the winning website or a follow-on remains available and can be found; the text used for the hyperlink is as listed on the past winner pages at https://web.archive.org/web/20081208183958/http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/winners-1997.php and so on. Many older websites, however, no longer exist or are redirected to replacements and are so noted.

References

{{Webby Awards * Internet film festivals

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

List A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...