InPublishing: Mobile internet the big winner at .net awards

Organised by .net, the magazine for web designers and developers, the .net Awards ceremony took place last week at Madame JoJo’s in London’s Soho in association with headline sponsors BaseKit. A record-breaking 125,000 public votes were cast, before an expert panel of judges made the final decision on this year’s winners.

Mobile internet use has exploded in recent years, and is expected to overtake desktop usage by 2014 (Source: comScore) – making Mobile Site of the Year one of 2011’s most eagerly anticipated categories. Facebook beat the shortlisted Engadget and Nike Better World with an innovative, benchmark-setting site, which is increasingly becoming the social networking phenomenon’s natural home.

New for 2011, the Designer and Developer of the Year categories put the spotlight on the individual talent pushing the web forward. Developer of the Year went to Paul Irish for his work on the likes of Modernizr (the winner of Open Source App of the Year) and jQuery Mobile (the winner of Innovation of the Year) and Google Chrome. Designer of the Year is Sarah Parmenter, creator of iPad and iPhone apps for the National Breast Cancer Foundation of America.

Celebrating the best new and emerging talent was also a key part of this year’s .net Awards. Self-taught 20-year-old Paul Davis, who has worked for Radiohead, Nokia and more, is Young Developer of the Year, and Canadian 20 year old Janna Hagen Young Designer of the Year. The Brilliant Newcomer award went to Mozilla’s technical evangelist Rob Hawkes.

Also recognised by this year’s .net Awards are some of the most exciting emerging technologies on the net. Must-have iPhone photo app Instagram, which has become a genuine social phenomenon with more than 11 million users, picked up the Best API award.

Dan Oliver, Editor in Chief of .net, says: "This year we've chosen to focus more attention on new and emerging talent, and it's a move that's breathed new life into our Awards. Also, it's no secret that web design and development is often seen as a male dominated industry, so we were also delighted to see an increasing number of female developers and designers on our shortlist, with Sarah Parmenter bagging the coveted Award for Designer of the Year."