Articles

Before 1995, practically all Web award programs were run by individuals or very small groups. One of the first to "institutionalize" an award program was Cool Central, run from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. What they did was unique in the annals of Web awards.

What made Cool Central's program so unique was their ambition to have a different winner posted every hour, on the hour. From each daily group, one was picked to be their "site of the day." And from their weekly group, one was chosen "site of the week." And from this group, one was selected "site of the month." And, yes, they had a "site of the year" finale.

The logistics of Cool Central's program were complex. Custom software was programmed and "Cool Experts" were enlisted from well-respected, site-of-the-day judges around the world, such as Internet Magazine's "Ice Queen" in London. Each of these Cool Experts' daily picks automatically became a Cool Central Site of the Hour. It is not clear how they selected the ensuing winners, but these awards quickly became the most coveted ones on the Web.

About this time, commercial sites, particularly the new database-driven search engines, were becoming aware just how powerful a drawing card Web award programs were. So, highly desirable awards from search engines like NetGuide, Magellan, Pointcom.com and Starting Point made their debut.

Yahoo! was not to be outdone by these upstart search engines. They introduced, among other things, awards for picks of the day and picks of the week. Institutional sites across the Web spectrum were now opening award programs, even news sites like LATimes and HomePC Magazine.

By now many of the individually run award programs were feeling outgunned or downgraded by those with well-recognized names behind them. They also knew many of these institutional programs didn't use any published criteria or were just a glamor contest. These Webheads were not to be shoved aside by the "Suits."

While there were dedicated award sites before, these programs were either popularity contests in which visitors voted for their favorites or very subjective, "I know what I like" judging contests. Now, award sites started spelling out exactly what they looked for when reviewing sites for their awards.

One of the first of these serious Web award sites was Surfer's Choice. Started on CompuServe in 1994, Wally Gross debuted Surfer's Choice under its own domain in October 1995, with an awards program that eclipsed the competition in many ways.

What Wally did was create a definitive set of objective criteria by which to evaluate applicant sites. Second, he had built a portal site that not only showcased the winners, but promoted them as well. Third, he made sure his high standards were followed by all involved in the judging process. Fourth, he had different awards for specific achievements. And finally, Wally inspired his contemporaries, as well as future award givers, to follow his lead.

The growth of awards continued with no end in sight. By 1996, there were hundreds of them trying to compete for Surfers looking for the "cools" and "hots" as well as the new Webheads looking for recognition. The types of awards also expanded as sites tried to capture the attention of a specific segment of the Web.

Unlike the early Mosaic days of the Web, publishing a site no longer meant an instantaneous attraction of Surfers. The Web was changing in many ways now, and one of the biggest changes was the audience. The Web community was growing by hundreds of thousands each month. These "Newbies" preferred surfing big-name, consumer-oriented sites and cared little for the once-popular "geek" sites.

Another big change came when Adobe released their HTML editor, PageMill, in January 1996 for Apple's Macintosh computers. PageMill allowed users to create Web pages without having to learn HTML coding. This breakthrough software caused other developers to create WYSIWYG, HTML editors or add user-friendly interfaces to their existing programs.

Soon people from all walks of life were uploading Web pages. Where they FTP'd to was usually one of the free hosting services, like Angelfire and GeoCities, that were now popping up on the scene almost as often as their advertisement windows. And, of course, they sponsored award programs as well.

Due to these and other changes, "Web excellence" took a big step backwards. Veteran Webheads couldn't believe their eyes. Some were even shocked to see how many people were inflicted with color blindness and couldn't even write in their native language. Civilization on the Web was overrun by these newcomers. The "Age of Amateurism" had dawned where everyone could voice an opinion on what "Web excellence" was.