Gameplay.com scores twice at Yell UK Web Awards 2000 - 11 July 2000
Gameplay.com scored twice at last night’s Yell UK Web Awards ceremony, scooping the prestigious ‘Site of the Year’ and ‘Best Youth Site’ awards.Hosted at the London Studios by Jonathon Ross, the Yell UK Web Awards are the leading UK honours for web sites. Known as the ‘people’s choice of the best on the net,’ the awards, now in their fifth year, are nominated by Internet users and judged by leading industry figures in the online world, and this year saw a 25% increase in nominations across all categories.
"With such a large number of high quality and creative sites, choosing the winners was tougher than ever for this year’s judges," said John Condron, CEO Yell (Yellow Pages Group). "Taken as a whole, the winning sites reveal a high level of creativity, professionalism, ingenuity and innovation," he added.
Gameplay.com beat off stiff competition from the likes of online supermarket tescodirect.com and top living guide timeout.com to win the best overall site award. The judges finally decided that Gameplay’s rich media content, speed, high usability, sense of community and interactivity - as well as its enormous popularity - made it a site very much ‘of the Year 2000.’
Commenting on the winning site, Tom Bowman, Revenue and Programming Group manager of MSN’s Europe, Middle East and Asia division, said "The site is fast and smooth, and really represents the spirit of where the web is at the moment. Gameplay has created a powerful brand name in a short space of time and has also managed to appeal to a much broader audience than the traditional gamer."
Other Yell UK Web awards went to tescodirect.com for Best E-commerce site (Business to Consumer), deepend.com for Best Web Design agency, mondus.co.uk for Best Site for SMEs, and lifeboats.org.uk for Best Site From a Non-Profit Making Organisation.
YELL UK WEB AWARDS 2000 - THE WINNERS:
| SITE OF THE YEAR |  |
| www.gameplay.com: Winner | |
| www.mondus.co.uk: Special Mention | |
| Best Entertainment Site | Best Youth Site |
| www.timeout.com: Winner | www.gameplay.com: Winner |
| www.london4kids.com: Runner up | www.bbc.co.uk/kids: Runner up |
| www.beano.co.uk: Runner up |
| Best Personal Site | Best E-commerce Site (B2C) |
| www.lawontheweb.co.uk: Winner | www.tescodirect.com: Winner |
| www.deafblind.com: Highly commended | www.gameplay.com: Runner up |
| www.mswebpals.org: Runner up | www.thelaundryco.com: Runner up |
| Best Site for SMEs | Best Web Design Agency |
| www.mondus.co.uk: Winner | www.deepend.com: Winner |
| www.royalmail.co.uk: Runner up | www.soholondon.com: Runner up |
| www.viking-direct.co.uk: Runner up | www.elmwood.co.uk: Runner up |
| Most Innovative Use of Technology | Best Site From A Non Profit Making Organisation |
| www.mywapworld.com: Winner | www.lifeboats.co.uk: Winner |
| www.k10k.com: Runner up | www.foe.co.uk: Runner up |
| www.telserve.co.uk: Runner up | www.stand.org.uk: Highly commended |
| Best Community Site | Best ISP |
| www.weddingguideuk.com: Winner | www.cwcom.net: Winner |
| www.h2g2.com: Runner up | www.dircon.net: Runner up |
| www.grindleton.org.uk: Runner up | www.askntl.com: Runner up |
| Best E-commerce Site (BtoB) | |
| www.pictor.co.uk: Highly commended | |
| www.trainingzone.co.uk: Highly commended | |
