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1998 Webby Awards: Like the Oscars, Only Funny

San Francisco awards show honors the best Web sites in 19 categories.

By Glenn McDonald, PCWorld   

Held at the Palace of Fine Arts auditorium in San Francisco, the second annual Webby awards honored 95 different Web site nominees in 19 categories. Winners in each of the categories were chosen by a panel of judges including Chicago Bulls superstar Dennis Rodman, former California governor Jerry Brown, Jane magazine editor Jane Pratt, and Dilbert creator Scott Adams.

Winners in the various categories--such as Arts, Film, Games, Money/Business, News, Sports, Travel, and Weird--were announced in traditional awards-show style, with nominees read off one by one and the winner announced at the end. (For a list of nominees and winners, visit the Webby Awards page--see link at right.) Comic Chris McGuire, this year%squots Webby%squots MC, suggested a five-word maximum on acceptance speeches, which only about half the winners stuck to.

Many of the evening%squots winners were small, independent Web sites, reflecting the online community%squots appreciation of innovation over flash and dazzle. In a prime example, the independent Internet Movie Database won the Film category for the second year in a row, beating out media big shots such as E! Online and Mr. Showbiz. (Representatives of the IMDB also made the night%squots best five-word acceptance speech: %dquotYou ain%squott seen nothin%squot yet.%dquot)

Salon Magazine also won for the second year in a row in category of Print/Zines, and Entropy 8 was another repeat winner in the Art/Design category. The popular Weird Site of the Year award went to an independent site called Bert Is Evil!, which chronicles various nefarious activities of the Sesame Street character.

More than 100,000 people registered to vote in the People%squots Choice category, up from around 40,000 last year. The event was also the first to be Webcast in 3D, according to organizers. (Thousands of free 3D glasses were mailed to registered People%squots Choice voters.)