The technology world may be in a slump three years after the dot-com bubble burst, but the Webbys, the awards doled out to the best sites on the Web, have marched on for the seventh straight year.
In all, 31 categories were honored in the awards, which are selected by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a group that includes 480 members such as musicians Beck and David Bowie, Internet co-creator Vint Cerf, political columnist Arianna Huffington, and “Smart Mobs” author Howard Rheingold.
Along with the usual favorites such as Amazon.com in the e-commerce category, and eBay in the services category, new voices online were honored.
In the activism category, considered one of the most watched sectors on the Web in the past year, was ActForChange, a site that offers “offers opinion, news, and action opportunities for people with progressive values.” The runner up in the People’s Voice award, which lets people vote their favorites, was environmental activist site Greenpeace.
In another emerging category, popular blog-building and Web design company MoveableType.com took top honors for Best Practices. The People’s Voice award in the category honored WiredNews.
In the finance category, PayPal.com, the payment facilitator of eBay.com, took the top honors, beating out nominees that included E-LOAN, Quicken.com, ClearStation and Yahoo! Finance.
Although the open source operating system community embodied in the Linux.org movement was considered a front-runner in the technical achievement category, the award went to open-source Web server Apache.org. Search engine Google won for technical achievement in the People’s Voice voting.
The Webbys home page has a complete list of winners.
