The Best of the Web: The 1998 Webby Award Winners

Suspend your disbelief for a second. Let's say you're stranded on a desert isle, and the Professor has built a Web browser out of two coconuts and a palm frond. As you'd expect, electricity is in scarce supply, and download times are...leisurely. So what handful of sites should you visit?

Might we suggest a tour of the 1998 Webby Award winners, the most creative and innovative sites on the Web? Sponsored in part by PC World parent company IDG, the second annual Webbies showcased 95 nominees--and 19 eventual winners--in categories ranging from Arts to Music, from News to Weird (every category but computers, since IDG.net, PC World Online, and other IDG sites would have posed a conflict of interest).

The editorial staff of The Web magazine (a spin-off of PC World) selected the 95 finalists from more than 4000 sites reviewed either in print or online at www.webmagazine.com. To qualify, sites had to excel in content, design, and links. The worthy 95 then went before a handpicked panel of independent experts, who pored over the nominees and selected their favorites.

No slouches here: The Webby judges included CEOs, presidents, editors, directors, deans, founders, producers, and publishers. Not to mention such luminaries as Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams (Money/Business), Chasing Amy director Kevin Smith (Film), former California governor Jerry Brown (Politics), composer and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier (Music), and Chicago Bulls bad boy Dennis Rodman (Weird, but of course).

Following tabulation of the judges' votes, winners were announced on March 6 at a gala awards ceremony at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts. In the following pages, we present the nominees and winners of this year's Webbies (a complete list of the judges and live links to the nominated sites appear at www.webbyawards.com).

So cancel all of your appointments, fire up those coconuts, and come on in--the surfing's fine.