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Built to last: Six sites show that things do get better with age
The article is originally published in the December 10, 2001 issue of Computerworld Philippines. Parts related to the DonnaCruz.com website are below.…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 Donna Cruz 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 5 years. It’s basically the contributions of the fans and Donna Cruz herself that have made the site very successful.” - Fuerte“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 5 years. It’s basically the contributions of the fans and Donna Cruz herself that have made the site very successful.” Fuerte said.
Full article below:
Built to last: Six sites show that things do get better with age
By Julie A. Rubio
SUPPLEMENT WRITER
December 10, 2001
ONCE a year, a multitude of Web designers, developers and IT enthusiasts converge to vie for the country’s most coveted and most glamorous awards for Web site design. On November 16, the design wars came to head again with the staging of the 4th Philippine Web Awards at the Meralco Theater.
Of this year’s 95 finalists, 13 were previous winners. At the head of this elite group was PhilMusic.com, which has dominated the Music category since the Web Awards were launched in 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 powerhouse Sony Music Philippines, and newcomer Immuseek.com.
“I walked on the 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 know what’s going to happen. It’s always a cliffhanger, and I don’t expect to win every time. 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 by storm when it bested four other top financial Web sites 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, what gives this site the edge over the competition? “We have a lot of features on our site that make people visit our site: from background information to entertainment,” Unionbankph.com Web master, Steve Crisologo, said.
The People’s Choice for Banking and Finance category and Yehey’s Most Popular Web Site Awards were judged by the number of votes each Web site garnered from a public 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 Web site 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 Donna Cruz 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 fans and Donna Cruz herself that have made the site very successful.” Fuerte said.
This year, Lakbay.Net regained its title as the best Travel Site of the Year, after coming up empty last year. The win was not totally unexpected. The site had walked off with the award in 1999 and it was just a matter of time before it won again. In last month’s Awards, in fact, Lakbay.Net did 1999 two better by also winning the People’s Choice Award and the Ericsson Mobile Internet Site of the Year Award.
Lakbay.Net is an Internet-based National Travel Reservation System, created by Kalak-bayan Travel Systems Inc., that primarily aims to provide travelers with accurate Philippine travel information and easy-to-use reservation and payment facilities.
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