List of Webby Award winners explained

The Webby Awards
Awarded For:	"Excellence on the Internet including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile content."^[1]
Presenter:	International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
Year:	1997

This is a list of the people, companies or websites that won the annual Webby Awards presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The Webby Awards have been dubbed the "internet's highest honor".^[2]

1997

See main article: 1997 Webby Awards. 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^[3] Whereas in later years the panelists were official members of International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, in 1997 the awards were chosen and given by IDG's The Web Magazine, which appointed a panel to judge the competition.^[4]

1998

See main article: 1998 Webby Awards. The 1998 Webby Awards were held on March 6, 1998 at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts,^[5] and were the first event ever to be broadcast live via the Web in 3D.^[6] 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 and other organizations.^[7] ABC News was the official website to "cybercast" the awards.^[8]

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.^[4] 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.

1999

See main article: 1999 Webby Awards. The 1999 Webby Awards were held on March 18, 1999 at the Herbst Theater (War memorial Opera House) in San Francisco, with a post-award party at City Hall.^[9] That year, Mayor Rudy Giuliani lobbied to move the ceremony to New York City, 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 was the master of ceremonies.^[10] 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.^[11] In 1999 the Webby Awards asked PricewaterhouseCoopers to help it tabulate and ensure security for the "People's Voice" winners, chosen by online voting.^[12]

2000

See main article: 2000 Webby Awards. The 2000 awards were the first time that organization requested submissions.^[13] Previously, nominees had been selected by an internal committee.^[13] The organization gave out awards in 27 categories voted on by a 350 member judges.^[14]

2001

See main article: 2001 Webby Awards.

2002

See main article: 2002 Webby Awards.

2003

See main article: 2003 Webby Awards. This year marked the first year the awards show was broadcast online, and it lasted 20 minutes.^[15] The organization provided 30 awards.^[15] NASA and eBay won the most honors.^[15]

2004

See main article: 2004 Webby Awards.

2005

See main article: 2005 Webby Awards. Honorees at 9th Annual Webby Awards included:^[16]

• Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Former Vice President Al Gore in recognition of the role he played in the development of the Internet over the past three decades^{[17] [18]}
• Webby Person of the Year: Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist
• Webby Artist of the Year: The Kleptones
• Webby Breakout of the Year: Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, the founders of Flickr

Webby Awards winners included Mercedes-Benz USA (Automotive), Google (Best Practices), Merck (Health), and Skype (Telecommunications).

2006

See main article: 2006 Webby Awards. 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: Robert Kahn, co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocols, the technology used to transmit information on today's Internet
• Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Prince, for "visionary" use of the internet, and being the first major artist to release an album over the internet, Crystal Ball.

2007

See main article: 2007 Webby Awards. Honorees at 11th Annual Webby Awards included:

• Webby Lifetime Achievement: David Bowie 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 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

See main article: 2008 Webby Awards.

The 2008 Webby Awards took place on June 11, 2008 at the Citriani Restaurant event space on Wall Street in New York City.^{[19] [20] [21]} Honorees at 12th Annual Webby Awards included:

• Webby Lifetime Achievement: David Byrne
• Webby Artist of the Year: will.i.am
• Webby Person of the Year: Stephen Colbert
• Webby Film & Video Lifetime Achievement: Lorne Michaels
• Webby Film & Video Awards Person of the Year: Michel Gondry
• Webby Film & Video Awards Best Actor: Tim and Eric

2009

See main article: 2009 Webby Awards.

Winners were honored at a ceremony hosted by Seth Meyers in New York City on June 8.^[22]

• Webby Artist of the Year: Trent Reznor
• Webby Person of the Year: Jimmy Fallon
• Webby Breakout of the Year: Twitter
• Best Actress: Sarah Silverman
• Outstanding Comedic Performance: Lisa Kudrow
• Film & Video Person of the Year: Seth MacFarlane

2010

See main article: 2010 Webby Awards. Honorees at 14th Annual Webby Awards included:

• Web documentary (individual episode): Jam 3 Media/National Film Board of Canada (Waterlife)^{[23] [24]}

2011

See main article: 2011 Webby Awards.

Winners were honored at a ceremony hosted by Lisa Kudrow in New York City on June 13 at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

• Webby for Best Drama in the Webby People’s Voice Awards of the Year: Urban Wolf.^[25]
• Welcome to Pine Point received two Webbys, for Documentary: Individual Episode in the Online Film & Video category and Netart in the Websites category.^[26]
• Watson, the computer which competed on Jeopardy!, was named Person of the Year.^[27]
• Webby for Best Individual Performance of the Year: Vincent Sze in Urban Wolf

2012

See main article: 2012 Webby Awards. 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^[28]
• Webby for best web art: Bla Bla^[28]

2013

See main article: 2013 Webby Awards. Honorees at 17th Annual Webby Awards included:

• Webby for Person of the Year: Frank Ocean
• Webby for Outstanding Comedic Performance: Jerry Seinfeld
• Webby for Artist of the Year: Grimes (musician)
• 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 and Dana Brunetti, for House of Cards (U.S. TV series)
• Special Achievement for Burning Love team
• People's Voice: Corridor Digital's "The Glitch"

2014

See main article: 2014 Webby Awards. Honorees at 18th Annual Webby Awards included:

• Webby for Person of the Year: Banksy
• 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
• Special Achievement for Freddie Wong, for co-creating Video Game High School
• Best Actress: Taylor Schilling
• Webby Film & Video Person of the Year: Freddie Wong

2015

See main article: 2015 Webby Awards. Honorees at 19th Annual Webby Awards included:

• Webby Lifetime Achievement Award to Louis Rossetto and Jane Metcalfe for publishing Wired
• Special Achievement to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
• Outstanding Comedic Performance to Chelsea Peretti
  • Best Actress to Ellie Kemper Best Actor to Tituss Burgess
• Breakout of the Year to Tinder
• Game (Tablet & All Other Devices) to Monument Valley

2016

See main article: 2016 Webby Awards. Honorees at 20th Annual Webby Awards included:

• Webby Lifetime Achievement to The Onion for humor
• Special Achievement to Lena Dunham & Jennifer Konner for Lenny Letter
• Outstanding Comedic Performance to Chelsea Peretti
  • Best Actress to Krysten Ritter Artist of the Year to Kanye West
• Film & Video Breakout of the Year to Making a Murderer
• Best Writing to Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
• Best Game to Justin Hook for Google Feud

2017

See main article: 2017 Webby Awards. Honorees at 21st Annual Webby Awards included:

• Lifetime Achievement: Internet Archive
• Activism: Women's Footprint in History by UN Women
• Music video: Coldplay
• Best Streaming Video: HBO Now
• Games: Pokémon Go
• Music: Mark Ronson

2018

See main article: 2018 Webby Awards.

2019

See main article: 2019 Webby Awards.

2020

See main article: 2020 Webby Awards.

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 firm that created the winning site and in the case of corporate websites, 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.

Notes and References

1. Web site: About. Webby Awards. June 1, 2008.
2. Web site: Here Are The Winners Of The 21st Annual Webby Awards. Webby Awards. April 27, 2017.
3. Forbes. January 3, 2007. Webbys 2.0. Rachel Rosmarin. June 9, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061215025202/http://www.forbes.com/technology/2006/06/09/webby_internet_award_cx_rr_0609webby.html. December 15, 2006.
4. News: January 8, 2008. San Francisco Chronicle. The Woman Behind the Webbies:S.F., N.Y. woo Web award impresario Tiffany Shlain. Carolyn Said. July 30, 1998.
5. The Best of the Web: The 1998 Webby Award Winners . https://archive.today/20120911143230/http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,3879/article.html . dead . September 11, 2012 . PC World . March 31, 1998 .
6. PC World. 1998 Webby Awards: Like the Oscars, Only Funny:San Francisco awards show honors the best Web sites in 19 categories.. Glenn McDonald. March 10, 1998.
7. Bulletin Board . Advertising Age . March 9, 1998 . 69 . 10 . 23.
8. Wilder . Clinton . War of the Webs . Informationweek . March 9, 1998 . 672 . 14. Ebscohost.
9. News: Buchanan, goofiness mark Webby Awards ceremony . CNN . May 12, 2000 . dead . January 3, 2008 . December 30, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071230053328/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/05/12/webby.awards/index.html .
10. Lenatti . Chuck . Upside at the Webby awards . Upside . June 1999 . 11 . 6 . 42 . Ebscohost.
11. News: Computergram International. Usual Suspects Takes Webbies in Five Words or Less. March 22, 1999. Rachel Chalmers .
12. News: PricewaterhouseCoopers Address On-Line Balloting Issues for Webby Awards. Business Wire. March 17, 1999. January 3, 2008.
13. Olson . Catherine Applefeld . Net Talent Search To Pick A Lilith Fair Act . Billboard . July 17, 1999 . 111 . 29 . 76 . May 20, 2020.
14. Goldsborough . Reid . Finding the best, most popular Web sites . Business Journal . December 15, 2000 . 14 . 50 . 18 . 20 May 2020.
15. News: Walker . Leslie . Webby Awards Salute Online Originality . Washington Post . 20 May 2020 . 8 June 2003.
16. http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=9 9th Annual Webby Awards
17. News: Webby Awards not laughing at Gore's contribution to Net Former Vice President of the United States. June 15, 2008. A.P.. May 5, 2005. USA Today.
18. Web site: Accepting a Webby? Brevity, Please. June 15, 2008. Carr. David. June 8, 2005. American Broadcasting Company.
19. News: CNet. The Meta-Webbys: The awards for the best Webby acceptance speeches. June 11, 2008. Caroline McCarthy.
20. News: Fox News. Webbys lure top talent:Lorne Michaels on hand to pick up lifetime achievement. Alex Woodson. June 9, 2008.
21. News: Stephen Colbert thanks himself at Webbys . news.com.au . Andrew Ramadge . June 11, 2008 . dead . June 11, 2008 . June 12, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080612085408/http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,25642,23846701-5014108,00.html .
22. News: webbyawards. WINNERS OF 13th ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS ANNOUNCED. May 5, 2009. Patrick Kowalczyk. dead. May 6, 2009. May 9, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090509150327/http://www.webbyawards.com/press/press-release.php?id=183.
23. News: Anderson. Kelly. Waterlife flows into the web. November 24, 2010. Playback. July 31, 2009.
24. Web site: Waterlife wins Webby Award for best web documentary. International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110927180446/http://www.idfa.nl/industry/Festival/news/archive/2010/latest_news/06-05-10-waterlife-wins-webby-for-best-web-documentary.aspx. September 27, 2011.
25. Web site: Urban Wolf winner of the Best Drama Webby Awards 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110415053345/http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?media_id=97&season=15 . April 15, 2011 .
26. News: Tony Lofaro. Old story told in new form. May 6, 2011. Ottawa Citizen. May 6, 2011.
27. News: IBM's Watson named 'person' of the year by Webbys. Associated Press. June 2, 2011. June 2, 2011.
28. Web site: Webby awards honour NFB, girls say video . . May 1, 2012 . May 12, 2012.