PCWorld Announces Web Awards 2008 - A List of Winners And Guess Who Was On The Jury! :)
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Now then, this post kind of illustrates why it’s great to be on the good side of WAT
Well, on a serious note, we are happy and proud to be associated with PC World Web awards as a part of the Jury. PC World web awards are given for best design and technology used by the existing websites in various categories. This year the winners have been announced in 33 categories evaluated by a jury out of a list of 500 websites.
Here are the categories and the names of the winners:
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Portal - Best Design: yahoo.co.in |
Social Networking - Best Design: ibibo.com |
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NEWS - Best Design: rediff.com |
Health - Best Design: healthy-india.org |
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Jobs Search - Best Design: monsterindia.com |
Books - |
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Matrimony - Best Design: shaadi.com |
Filing Taxes - Best Design: taxsmile.com |
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Shopping - Best Design: futurebazaar.com |
Legal Services - Best Design: legalhelpindia.com |
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Travel - Best Design: Cleartrip.com |
Food and Beverage - Best Design: kitchensofindia.com |
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Cricket - Best Design: cricketnirvana.com |
Parenting - Best Design: indiaparenting.com |
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Properties - Best Design: hdfcrealty.com |
Online Directory - Best Design: asklaila.com |
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Online Radio - Best Design: kamlabhattshow.com |
Entertainment - Best Design: apunkachoice.com |
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Search - Best Design: yahoo.co.in |
Bill Payment - Best Design: visabillpay.in |
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Automobiles - Best Design: carazoo.com |
Education - Best Design: schoolsahead.com |
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Tourism - Best Design: incredibleindia.org |
Astrology - Best Design: ganeshaspeaks.com |
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Technology - |
Mobile Contents - Best Design: mobilemirchi.com |
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Gaming - Best Design: games: indya.com |
Movie Rentals - Best Design: seventymm.com |
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Gifts and Flowers - |
Photo Sharing - Best Design: zoom.in |
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NGO - Best Design: cry.org |
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All the reviews of the website can be read on www.pcworld.in
Though I was on the jury, I don’t agree with the results on some of the above. Actually, its more about the categorization than the results. I mean, I’m not sure if Asklaila and onyomo should feature in online directory! I think, they are more like local search, aren’t they? PCWorld web awards have to upgrade their categories to include the new age websites that are poping up each day. For example there was no category for best video sharing, social bookmarking or even vernacular site which could have been interesting.































abso agree on the categorisation.. hmm, am myself not sure of this one, but do rediff and HT belong on the same category?
well I guess rediff news is and HT do for the news category.. I mean more than asklaila for online directory.
are u serious!! Indya.com wins overall gaming???
Cleartrip.com is my Fav site and they really are the google of travel.
Congratulations to Cleartrip!!!
HDFC Realty??? Wow seems PC World got paid a lot. It is one of the worst real estate site I have seen and not even in the top 10 for more reasons than one:
1. Poor usability.
2. No standards compliance.
3. Lacks basic features like photos, videos and maps.
4. Bad navigation (no bookmarkable URLs).
5. Slow loading.
6. Not even in top 20 in terms of traffic (barely visible in this alexa graph http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/propertywala.com%2Fpropertywala.com?site0=magicbricks.com&site1=indiaproperty.com&site2=99acres.com&site3=propertywala.com&site4=hdfcrealty.com&y=r&z=3&h=300&w=610&c=1&u%5B%5D=magicbricks.com&u%5B%5D=indiaproperty.com&u%5B%5D=99acres.com&u%5B%5D=propertywala.com&u%5B%5D=hdfcrealty.com&x=2008-06-13T07%3A36%3A58.000Z&check=www.alexa.com&signature=RxorhR1b5ljkOWer1DLlCHVdxFw%3D&range=3m&size=Medium).
This is just one example, don’t get me started on some other sites in the list. Way to go PC World with journalistic integrity.
Rajiv, can we have an idea on the broad parameters used for the rankings?
never trust this awards..cos they are for sake of money and sponsors……how come naukri not even included where as its more in demand then monsterindia……and how come yahoo.co.in even featured in search section for best design wehn the page itself is not solely for search……….and btw did they had any market survey or public voting prior to the results or just 10-15 people decided the fate of whole web industry in india
Being a lawyer myself, I refer all the legal portals regularly and I feel this award is skewed coz they haven’t even considered portals like advocatekhoj.com in the legal category which is having a far better design and technology to the ones listed.
Being a user, I think the makemytrip is far better than the cleartrip, the way they have designed their website, the way they presented the information and the lots more, it doesn’t make any sense of below statements.
Travel - Best Design: Cleartrip.com
Best Technology Usage: Cleartrip.com
Overall Winner:Cleartrip.com
What a great website is this(HDFCReality) and great description given by PCworld. I am sure enough that PCworld or even any person on this earth cannot write better comments for the hdfc site better than the justification given by pc world why they chosen this site the best in this category.
After reading this Justification, I thought it is like when a stupid and dumb guy of a class get Best Studebt award (by favor) and the teacher who is also father of the guy says “He is topper because dekho woh kabhi bhi kisi teacher ko class mein ques pooch ke tang nahi karta(Because he never comes :P), He is so neat and clean dekho Har exam mein Uski Copy bhi NEat and and totally Clean Hoti Hai.”
I dont expected this with PCworld Totally Unfair. As a software engg and web savvy i thinks in this field it Comes After Top 20(or may be not in top 50 sites). See these websites
Magicbricks.com
99acres.com
Makaan.com
indiaproperty.com
indiaproperties.com
Bharatrentals.com
Propertywala.com
india1property.com
godirect.in
Many More….
PC world Cannot dare to open the Marks as it mentioned in the selection criterion because….
In Design Score (40 points): I can give this site max 10 marks
it design is not web 2.0 standerds. No smooth Navigation, Very Dark and eye catchy design, Fix layout(Not Suitable for 19” or wide monitors).Magic bricks have best visual design and propertywala.com tops in Navigation and usability. This site comes Last.
Technology (40 points): I can give this site max 5 marks.
Because They had done Nothing new in this site, No Innovation , No experiment, Even this site is not doing what other ppl are doing like sms contact(almost all), click to call (Magic), Property marking on map (Propertywala), Searching On map (Propertywala),property Images(all), Property Floor plans(all), Video walkthrough Uploading(propertywala). Wapsite(magicbricks,99acres) ,Mobile software(Magicbricks). Keyword search
ajax is current trend in web And HDFC still using the Old Postbacks and consuming so much time and bandwith of user.
I am not able to guess this websites’ rank in tecnology field. You can guess.
i think the list of websites whoever was considered for all the categories should also be shown. indya wins for best games like shit sweeper and miss malfunction
ROFLMAO =))
does the honorable jury know about games at all?
there is a serious dearth of participants in these awards i think. was there an online bidding for the prize too ??
i admire you WAT guys but im shocked at the final list. looossinnggg NRRRGG 2 rite…
I agree with most of what you guys say.. some winners have taken me aback as well.. though I would back cleartrip. I think its a fantastic site!
Rajiv,
Honest question: Categories such as News & Social Networking, the overall winner is neither the best design nor the best use of tech! So, it concludes as orkut isn’t the best designed nor the best use of technology, yet for whatever reason is the overall winner!
Does not go well with me! As a jury, may be you are in a better position to pass the community feedback. (dont see a way to add comments in pcworld.in)
-Rajiv
I do agree with most of your visitors who have expressed their shcok at the inclusion of a few names as winners.
Specifically commenting on the auto websites,
I would like to know which other websites were considered and what were the criteria chosen for judging the final winners.
Frankly, I am happy that my favorite auto website (carazoo.com) has been chosen for Best Design, but the corresponding comment in the PC World Magazine is rather contradictory. I am sure the jury can explain and respond to al lthe various comments by your visitors
May be there were points given to the websites on the basis of design, technology & the overall performance and thus there were few sites which scored more on the design front, others on the technology-usage and still others which came out as complete winners(woaah). Guess Rajiv can better explain us this.
P.S: 31 categories were awarded (just as reflected by your table) and not 33 (as mentioned earlier)
