Every year, since 1997, 1,000+ judges and millions of average people have participated in the annual Webby Awards. There are the Grammys, the Emmys, the Oscars and the Tonys, all for entertainment. Why not an award for everything related to the internet. Hosted by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), the Webbys has 100+ awards, ranging from games to social media to every type of advertisement there is. Since there are so many categories, really to much to look through them all, I have picked my 5 favorite winners. Here they are:
#1. Flat Vs Realism
Flat Vs Realism is a amazing web based story about the ongoing battle between flat design and realism. Basically iOS 67 vs iOS 7. Powered by inTacto, Flat Vs Realism won the award of Self Promotion/Portfolio, winning both the Webby Judges award and People’s Choice award. FVR is incredibly well done, balancing top class flat design with incredibly realism design depending on the timing in the story. I highly recommend you go here to experience the wonder of what good web designers can do.
#2. Bob Dylan TV Mashup
This ingenious website is basically set up like a TV, where you can change the channels, and even turn up the volume the old fashioned way. There are about 15 actual channels you can flip through, all having real looking shows from that channel playing. But there is one difference. In the background, you can hear Bob Dylan’s song Like A Rolling Stone. But when you look at the people on TV, it looks like the people are actually singing the song. Of course, this website won Best Editing, and they deserved it. Great idea and very well executed.
#3 Smart TXTBKS
Smart TXTBKS is not only a great idea, it is a very relevant idea and certainly will help people all over the world. Well, kids in Philippines, at least. In the Philippines, most people can’t afford a smartphone, and only have an old flip-phone, so their children still have to lug 100 pounds of textbooks to class everyday. This is getting to be a bigger problem, since some studies and news reports have shown that kids are even getting deformed by this task. Smart TXTBKS is a solution to that problem. The actual hardware of TXTBKS is a little sim card, which the kids can put into their old phones. On the sim cards are lots of different exercises and learning material for different subjects. This turns their phones into a textbook, letting them rest thier back for once. Smart TXTBKS won the Webby award for Education/Reference.
#4: Glasses.com App
Glasses.com is one of the biggest glasses shopping sites, and with the rise of high-tech advertisements, Glasses.com decided to ride the wave with their app, subsecuently named Glasses.com for iPhone. The app is basically a shopping tool, allowing you to look at all different types of glasses. Except for one thing. To win a Webby, which the Glasses.com app did in the Best Use Of A Camera category, you need to have some kind of gimmick or unusual or cool use of technoogy. The Glasses.com app actually lets you take a 3D picture of your face (by taking many puctures of you while you turn your head), then puts a 3D picture of the glasses they are selling on your face so you can try it on withput having to leave your house. This type of app is no doubt the future of shopping technology, and certainly deserves the Webby.
#5 The Nike SB App
Last but certainly not least on this list is Nike’s SB app. Nike, as you probably know, is very integrated into sports equipment culture. All the time they are trying to branch off into different areas of sport, such as their recent development into smart watches, and their probable partnership with Apple for iWatch. Recently, Nike has delved into the giant sport of skateboarding. Skateboarding is a incredibly popular sport, with million and millions of tricks out there to learn. That’s why in Nike’s app, Nike SB, Nike brought together some of the best skateboarders out there to record and map out all the tricks known to mankind. The result is SB, an app where you can look through videos and demonstrations of how to do tons of different tricks in tons of different categories. This app won the Webby for Sports (handheld).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afeypAqwgng
Every year, the Webbys recognize many amazing projects and products that use the internet and technology to their advantage. I touched the surface of all the amazing Webby award winners, so if you would like to see them all for yourself, go right ahead here. I also found some interesting Webby award nominees that did not win, so here are my honorable mentions:
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