For Immediate Release:
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Gita Chandra (gita@pkpr.com)
Patrick Kowalczyk (patrick@pkpr.com)
PKPR, 212.627.8098
THE 13TH ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS
ANNOUNCE WINNERS FOR BEST MOBILE SITES
ESPN.com and aka-aki.com among top winners
New York, NY (May 5, 2009) – Reflecting the mobile Web’s increasing influence on everyday life, The 13th Annual Webby Awards today unveiled winners in twelve categories recognizing mobile achievement including applications, video, use of GPS, and gaming.
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, online film and video, interactive advertising, and mobile Websites.
In addition, over 500,000 votes were cast by people around the world in The Webby People’s Voice Awards. A full list of both Webby Awards and People’s Voice Awards winners can be found at www.webbyawards.com
Highlights of the winners in the mobile categories include:
- Achieving critical and popular consensus, ESPN.com Mobile (Best Sports) and Berlin’s aka-aki.com (Best Social Networking) won both a Webby Award and a Webby People’s Voice Award.
- Breakouts include Qik (Best Use of Mobile Video), which provides live video streaming from mobile phones, and Stitcher (News), which allows mobile phone users to stream their favorite podcasts and radio shows.
- Winners for Best Mobile Application, a closely-watched category debuting this year, are Amazon Mobile (Webby Award) and Skyfire Mobile (Webby People?s Voice Award).
“Over the next decade, it’s estimated that a billion new users will come to the Web for the first time through mobile devices,”” said David-Michel Davies. “This year’s winners are the innovators and pioneers shaping the future of this increasingly influential medium.”
Winners will be honored at a star-studded ceremony hosted by Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers in New York City on June 8th. Starting on June 9th on the new, custom Webby Awards YouTube Channel, fans will be able to view dozens of short video highlights from the ceremony, including the winner’s five-word speeches and celebrity red carpet interviews. Past headline-grabbing speechmakers include Al Gore (“Please don’t recount this vote”) and Stephen Colbert (“Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.”) This year’s special achievement honorees include Jimmy Fallon (Webby Person of the Year), actress and comedian Sarah Silverman (Best Actress), Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (Webby Artist of the Year), and Twitter (Breakout of the Year), accepted by co-founder Biz Stone.
The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-person judging academy whose members include Vinton Cerf, R/GA’s Chief Bob Greenberg, “Simpson’s” creator Matt Groening, Arianna Huffington, and Harvey Weinstein.
About The Webby Awards
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. Established in 1996, the 13th Annual Webby Awards received over 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Microsoft Silverlight; The Creative Group; .ORG; Getty Images; The Barbarian Group; Digital Kitchen; Variety; Wired; IDG; PricewaterhouseCoopers; 2advanced.Net; KobeMail and Museum of the Moving Image.
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