The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on 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 ...

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 include

websites 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 Wiki ...

, advertising and media, online film and video, mobile sites and apps, and social. Two winners are selected in each category, one by members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and one by the public who cast their votes during Webby People's Voice voting. Each winner presents a five-word acceptance speech, a trademark of the annual awards show. Hailed as the "Internet’s highest honor," the award is one of the oldest Internet-oriented awards, and is associated with the phrase "The Oscars of the Internet."

History

In its early years, the organization was one among others vying to be the premiere internet awards show, most notably, the Cool Site of the Year Awards. Both shows would compare themselves to the Oscars, as did media outlets such as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' to Canada's '' Globe & Mail''. The winners of the First Annual Webby Awards in 1995 were presented by

John Brancato and Michael Ferris John Brancato and Michael Ferris are an American screenwriting duo, whose notable works include '' The Game'', '' Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines'', ''Terminator Salvation'', ''Surrogates'' and '' The Hunter's Prayer''. Brancato and Ferris me ...

, writers for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. It was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The televised Webby Awards were sponsored by the Academy of Web Design and

Cool Site of the Day Cool Site of the Day is an early website created in August 1994 and originally maintained by Glenn Davis. Linking to one single recommended site off its homepage each day, it soon became an arbiter of taste on the Internet. Within a few months o ...

. The first Webby Awards were produced by Kay Dangaard at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel as a nod to the first site of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars). That first year, they were called "Webbie" Awards. The first "Site of the Year" winner was the pioneer webisodic serial

The Spot The Spot, or thespot.com, was the first episodic online story (1995–1997), and covered bandwidth and production costs by offering paid advertising banners on the web pages and product placement within the journal entries. The site earned one o ...

. The modern Webby Awards were co-founded by

Tiffany Shlain Tiffany Shlain (born April 8, 1970) is an American filmmaker and author. Described by the public radio program '' On Being'' as "an internet pioneer", Shlain is the co-founder of the Webby Awards and the founder of the International Academy of Di ...

, a filmmaker, when she was hired by ''The Web Magazine'' to re-establish them, and were first held in San Francisco in 1997. They quickly became known for its requirement that winners give their acceptance speeches in five words. After this, the awards became more successful than the magazine and IDG closed the publication. Shlain and co-founder Maya Draisin Farrah continued to run The Webby Awards until 2004. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which selects the winners of The Webby Awards, was established in 1998 by co-founders

, Spencer Ante and Maya Draisin. Members of the Academy include

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 ...

, Grimes,

Questlove Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Tho ...

, Internet inventor Vint Cerf,

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

’s Head of Fashion Partnerships

Eva Chen Eva Yi-Hwa Chen is a Taiwanese businessperson and the co-founder and CEO of Trend Micro, one of the world's largest software security firms. In 2010, ''CRN Magazine'' named her as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential Executives in the Industry". ...

, comedian Jimmy Kimmel,

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 ...

Founder

Biz Stone Christopher Isaac "Biz" Stone (born March 10, 1974) is an American entrepreneur who is a co-founder of Twitter, among other technology companies. Stone was the creative director at Xanga from 1999 to 2001. Stone co-founded Jelly, with Ben Finkel ...

Vice Media Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. , the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: VICE.com (digital content); VICE STUDIOS (film and TV production) VICE TV (also known as VICELAND); ...

Co-Founder and CEO Shane Smith,

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to ...

’s David Karp, Director of Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Susan P. Crawford Susan P. Crawford (born February 27, 1963) is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She served as President Barack Obama's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and is a columnist f ...

Refinery29 Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Vice Media. History Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Refinery29 ...

’s Executive Creative Director Piera Gelardi, and CEO and cofounder of Gimlet Media Alex Blumberg. The Webby Awards is owned and operated by the Webby Media Group, a division of Recognition Media, which also owns and produces the

Lovie Awards 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 ...

in Europe and Netted by the Webbys, a daily email publication launched in 2009. David-Michel Davies, CEO of Webby Media Group, current Executive Director of the Webby Awards and co-founder of Internet Week New York, was named Executive Director of the Webby Awards in 2005. In 2009, the 13th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries. That same year, more than 500,000 votes were cast in The Webby People's Voice Awards. In 2012, the 16th Annual Webby awards received 1.5 million votes from more than 200 countries for the People's Voice awards. In 2015, the 19th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 13,000 entries from all 50 U.S. states and over 60 countries worldwide.

Nomination process

The 2000 awards began the transition to nominee submissions. Previously, nominees had been selected by an internal committee. During the Call for Entries phase, each entry is rated by Associate Members of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Entries that receive the highest marks during this first round of voting are included on category-specific shortlists and further evaluated by Executive Members of the Academy. Executive Academy Members with category-specific expertise evaluate the shortlisted entries based on the appropriate Website, Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video, Mobile Sites & Apps, and Social category criteria, and cast ballots to determine Webby Honorees, Nominees and Webby Winners.

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

provides vote tabulation consulting for the Webby Awards. In addition to the award given in each category by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, another winner is selected in each category as determined by the general public during People's Voice voting. Winners of both the Academy-selected and People's Voice-selected awards are invited to the Webbys.

Awards granted

The Webby Awards are presented in over a hundred categories among all four types of entries. A website can be entered in multiple categories and receive multiple awards. In each category, two awards are handed out: a Webby Award selected by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and a People's Voice Award selected by the general public. Past winners include Amazon.com,

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 ...

, '' Travel + Leisure'',

Simply Hired Simply Hired is an employment website utilizing desktop and mobile application for an online recruitment advertising network based in Sunnyvale, California. The company was launched in 2003. In 2016, Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. (owner of Indeed ...

Kayak.com Kayak (styled as KAYAK) is an American online travel agency and metasearch engine owned and operated by Booking Holdings. Kayak's website and mobile apps are currently available in over 18 languages and more than 30 countries, including the Un ...

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Mana ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mu ...

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 ...

FedEx FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

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 ...

, CNN,

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

, ''

'', Annie Lennox, NPR, '' Salon Magazine'',

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

, Meetup,

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

, '' Deleted - The Game'', Flickr,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, Comedy Central, PBS, ''The Office'' webisodes,

SwiftKey Microsoft SwiftKey is a virtual keyboard app originally developed by TouchType for Android and iOS devices. It was first released for Android in July 2010, followed by an iOS release in September 2014 after Apple implemented third-party key ...

, ''

My Damn Channel Omnivision Entertainment (formerly ''My Damn Channel'') is an entertainment website and multichannel network founded to enable comedians, actors, filmmakers, musicians, and brands to co-produce, monetize and distribute original video content. Th ...

'',

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

, George Takei, People News Chronicle, Airbnb, '' The Onion'',

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

Mashable Mashable is a digital media platform, news website and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005. History Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2005. Early iterations of the site were a ...

Zach Galifianakis Zachary Knight Galifianakis (born October 1, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He appeared in ''Comedy Central Presents'' special and presented his show ''Late World with Zach'' on VH1. Galifianakis has starred in films including ''Th ...

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

Rhett and Link Rhett James McLaughlin (born October 11, 1977) and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal III (born June 1, 1978) are an American comedy duo. Self-styled as "Internetainers" (a portmanteau of "Internet" and "entertainers"), they are known for creating an ...

, and '' Humans of New York''. Each year, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences also honors individuals with Webby Special Achievement Awards. Past Webby Special Achievement winners include Stuart Webster,

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

, Meg Whitman, Tim & Eric, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Lorne Michaels,

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 compani ...

Thomas Friedman Thomas Loren Friedman (; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for '' The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global ...

, Stephen Colbert, Michel Gondry, the

Beastie Boys Beastie Boys were an American rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar, programming) ...

, Banksy, Lawrence Lessig, Van Jones, Gillian Anderson,

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 ...

Ellie Kemper Elizabeth Claire Kemper (born May 2, 1980) is an American actress and comedian. She has been nominated for a Critics' Choice Movie Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Satellite Awards, and seven Screen ...

and

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom '' Seinfeld'', which he created and wrote with La ...

Ceremony

Between 2005 and 2019, the Webby Awards were presented in New York City. Comedian Rob Corddry hosted the ceremony from 2005 to 2007.

Seth Meyers Seth Adam Meyers (born December 28, 1973) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host. He hosts ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'', a late-night talk show on NBC. Prior to that, he was a cast member and head writer for NB ...

of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

'' hosted in 2008 and 2009, B.J. Novak of NBC's ''

The Office ''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries. The original ser ...

'' in 2010, and Lisa Kudrow in 2011. Comedian, actor, and writer

Patton Oswalt Patton Peter Oswalt (born January 27, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is known as Spence Olchin in the sitcom '' The King of Queens'' (1998–2007) and for narrating the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' (2013–present) as ...

hosted from 2012 to 2014. Comedian Hannibal Buress hosted in 2015. The Webbys are famous for limiting recipients to five-word speeches, which are often humorous, although some exceed the limit. In 2005 when accepting his Lifetime Achievement Award, former Vice President

's speech was "Please don't

recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

this vote." He was introduced by Vint Cerf who used the same format to state, "We all invented the Internet." In 2008, Stephen Colbert shouted “Me. Me. Me. Me. Me”Speeches, 2008
Webby Awards. Retrieved April 2, 2010. when accepting his award for Webby Person of the Year. Accepting the award for Best Political Blog in 2008, Arianna Huffington’s speech was “President Obama ... Sounds good, right?" Other popular speeches include "Can anyone fix my computer?"Speeches, 2007
. Webby Awards. Retrieved April 2, 2010. (the

); "Everything you think is true"Speeches, 2006
. Webby Awards. Retrieved April 2, 2010. (

); "Thank God Conan got promoted"Speeches
. Webby Awards. Retrieved April 2, 2010. (

Jimmy Fallon James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is an American comedian, television host, actor, and writer. He is known for his work in television as a cast member on '' Saturday Night Live'' and as the host of the late-night talk show ''The To ...

), "Free, open... Keep one Web" ( Sir Tim Berners Lee), “Holy - Fucking - Shit,

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...

" (

Jake Hurwitz Jacob Penn Cooper Hurwitz (born August 5, 1985) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and member of the comedy duo Jake and Amir. He was hired by the comedy website CollegeHumor after becoming an intern there in 2006, and has written and appe ...

), and "

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. Did it happen? Yes." ( Sarah Silverman). In 2013, the creator of the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Steve Wilhite, accepted his Webby and delivered his now famous five-word speech, "It’s pronounced 'Jif' not 'Gif'."

Criticism

The Webbys have been criticized for their pay-to-enter and pay-to-attend policy (winners and nominees also have to pay to attend the award ceremony), and thus for not taking most websites into consideration before distributing their awards.Taylor, Marisa (May 7, 2009
The annual controversy over the Webby awards.
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', ''Digits'' blog. Retrieved April 2, 2010.

Gawker ''Gawker'' is an American blog founded by Nick Denton and Elizabeth Spiers and based in New York City focusing on celebrities and the media industry. According to SimilarWeb, the site had over 23 million visits per month as of 2015. Founded ...

, its

Valleywag Valleywag was a Gawker Media blog with gossip and news about Silicon Valley personalities. It was initially launched under the direction of editor Nick Douglas in February 2006. After Douglas was fired, In response, Webby Awards executive director David-Michel Davies told the ''Wall Street Journal'' that entry fees “provide the best and most sustainable model for ensuring that our judging process remains consistent and rigorous and is not dependent on things like sponsorships that can fluctuate from year to year.”

References

External links

*
Webby Awards
at ''

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

'' {{Webby Awards Computer-related awards American science and technology awards Web awards Blog awards Web development Internet film festivals Awards established in 1996 Podcasting awards Television series by Boardwalk Pictures