The 1998 Webby Awards were held on March 6, 1998, at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts,[1] and were the first event ever to be broadcast live via the Web in 3D.[2] The "People's Voice" awards, chosen by online poll, received 100,000 cumulative votes that year.
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.[3] The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences was constituted that year as the judging panel for the awards, continues to do so as of the 2007 awards.
Winners and nominees:[4]
| Category | Winner | Other nominees |
|---|---|---|
| Net Art | Entropy8 | |
| Community | ||
| Education | Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Learn2.com The Home Education Page The Smithsonian | |
| Film | E! Online Film.com Mr. Showbiz Rough Cut | |
| Games | GAMECENTER.COM GameSpot Imagine Games PlaySite | |
| Health | Mayo Clinic Health O@sis | Ask Dr. Weil Reuters Health Information Services The Body: A Multimedia AIDS and HIV Resource thriveonline.com |
| Home | Better Homes & Gardens Online Disney's Daily Blast Family.com Virtual Garden | |
| Living | Gurl.com | PlanetOut SWOON Virtual Jerusalem Wedding Channel |
| Money/Business | ||
| Music | Experience Music Project | Addicted to Noise MTV Online TheDJ AOL Radio Tunes.com |
| News | NEWS.COM | |
| Politics+Law | CNN/TIME All Politics | |
| Print+Zines | Salon Magazine | alt.culture Literary Kicks Merriam-Webster The Libyrinth |
| Radio | AudioNet | |
| Science | ||
| Sports | CBS Sportsline | |
| Travel | ||
| TV | ||
| Weird | ||
Winners and nominees are generally named according to the organization or website winning the award, although the recipient is, technically, the web design firm or internal department that created the winning site and in the case of corporate websites, the designer's client. Web links are provided for informational purposes, both in the most recently available archive.org version before the awards ceremony and, where available, the current website. Many older websites no longer exist, are redirected, or have been substantially redesigned.