'Built to last: Six sites show that things do get better with age' is an article in the 'Post-Philippine Web Awards Supplement' section from the December 10, 2001 issue of ComputerWorld Philippines. This is written by Julie A. Rubio.
ONCE ayear, a multitude of Web designers, developers and ITenthusiasts converge to vie for the country’s most coveted and most glamorous awards for Web site design. OnNovember16, the design wars came to head again with the
staging of the 4” Philippine Web Awards at the Meralco Theater.
Of this year’s 95 finalists, 13 were previous winners. Atthe head of this elite PhilMusic.com, group which has dominated the Music category since the Web Awards were launchedin 1998. This four-time Web awardee was also a repeat
winner in the People’s Choice Awards, bagging the Award for Music thrice, a testament to the site’s popularity. In 1998, Philmusic.com ran away with the PLDT Web Site of the Year, an award given only to the highest-scoring site across all categories.
This year's music category saw both new and familiar faces in contention. Finalists included old standbys TitikPilipino.com, Musiko.com, major-label power-house Sony Music Philippines, and newcomer Immuseek.com
“I walked onthe stage and I couldn’t believe it. I’ve actually won 8 awards for four years, You know, you can’t own a lucky streak that long. Every year, you never knowwhat’s going to happen. It’s always a cliffhanger, and I don’t expect to win everytime. There’s always some big competitor every time anyway. It’s nerve-wracking, actually" said Jim Ayson, Philmusic.com Web master and designer.
Unionbankph.com, for its part, took the 4th Philippine Web Awards bystorm when it bested four othertop financial Websites by winning the Banking and Finance Category award. The site also bagged the People’s Choice Award for Banking and Finance and Yehey’s Most Popular Web Site award.
So, whatgives this site the edge over the competition? “We have a lot of features on our site that make people visit our site: from background informationto enter-tainment,” Unionbankph.com Web master, Steve Crisologo, said.
The People’s Choice for Banking and Finance category and Yehey’s Most Popular WebSite Awards were judged by the number of votes each Web site
garnered from apublic poll held one month before the awarding ceremonies. Unionbankph.com was able to gather enough votes not only to win the Banking and Finance category but also to win the most popular Website across all categories.
Meanwhile, donnacruz.com remains a hot favorite, winning this year’s award for the Celebrities category. The site also won in 1999 and it received the People’s Choice Award in 1998.
The donnacruz.com site went online in 1996, when die-hard DonnaCruz fan Cheryl Fuerte first experimented with the Internet. Fuerte, more popularly known as “Inday” in the Internet community, decided to create a site in honor of her idol, Donna Cruz, little knowing that her labor of love would quickly become one of the greatest local celeb sites. With limited skills, a raw design sense, but with all the new technologies at hand, Fuerte launched “The Donna Cruz Homepage.” The rest, as they say, is history.
“This is our second time to win a Webby and it’s such a great honor to win again. This site has been around for five years. It’s basically the contributions of the have made the site very successful.” Fuerte said.