The Best Of The WebThe Best Of The Web
Awards time is here. No, it's not the "Oscar" , "Grammy" or the "Emmy" awards. It's the awards for the World Wide Web where they choose the 'best of the best' of the Internet. It's the "Webby Awards". And here are the nominees and winners which are catogarized into 15 categories.
LIFESTYLE/HEALTH |
| Acupuncture | Webmastered by a Santa Monica acu-puncturist, this comprehensive site also covers Chinese healing arts such as Qi Gong, herbology, and massage. Read up on theories about how and why acupuncture works; link up with schools, practitioners, other acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine sites, and even insurance companies that cover acupuncture treatment. Oh yeah: If needles give you the willies, practitioners can use heat or electricity to stimulate the flow of your Qi, with a "minimum of discomfort." |
| DeathNet | This popular Canadian-based site is THE place to go for sober discussion, research, or pondering of our society's "ultimate taboo subject." Euthanasia and assisted suicide, living wills, and anything pertaining to the "art and science of dying well" are covered. Visitors may browse the articles; but to keep flamers at bay, all must register before joining DeathTALK, a moderated forum for debating controversial "end-of-life" issues. |
| PlanetOut | Okay, we're all tired of the Planet- prefix (and the -Net suffix-it's Pla-Net, get it?). And for additional pun-ishment, the search engine is nicknamed NetQueery. Explore this extroverted online community of lesbigay/trans folks to meet new friends via chats or message boards; scan the daily news updates; link up with activist groups like Digital Queers; or skim reviews of pop culture as seen through a queer lens. With ads galore and frames peppered with smart and funny content, PlanetOut is like HotWired with a homophilic spin. |
WINNER |
For the best in health news, go directly to the source of the daily releases that regularly show up on Yahoo and (in abridged form) in your local newspaper. Other features on this impeccably maintained site target the health professional: Taking a stab at diagnosing the virtual patient in the weekly "Clinical Challenge" is invariably humiliating to the layperson (Q: What tests do you order? A: Uhhh... blood?). But even an outsider can feel like an insider while perusing the med-journal satire "Journal of Irreproducible Results." |
| Women's Edge | The former Prevention e-zine site evidently was constructed over the dreaded gender fault line. In any case it has been riven into Women's Edge and Men's Health Daily. The latter traffics in the most condescending of male stereotypes, concentrating on boneheaded topics like abs (women like 'em big) and boobs (men like 'em big). Accordingly, even guys may prefer to kill a few hours at the gals' site, with its engrossing interactive quizzes, menu planners, and calorie counters. But where did they find a cinnamon bun with a mere 117 calories? |