Web Sites Win Awards

Disney, E! Online, the Discovery Channel and the Sci-Fi Channel were among the winners of the NetGuide Awards, created to honor the most innovative and interesting Internet products and Web sites in the world.

The awards, sponsored by Legacy Software, were given out at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Comedian Margaret Cho was the show’s host.

Disney (http://www.disney.com) was voted best children’s site and E! Online (eonline.com) was named most entertaining site.

The Sci-Fi Channel’s Dominion Web site’s (scifi.com) presentation of the 1996 science fiction convention was chosen as best live event, and Discovery (discovery.com) won for best educational site.

Mr. ShowBiz (mrshowbiz.com) was named the site with the best information delivery, and GeoCities (geocities.com) collected two awards for the site with the most social impact and the site with the best sense of community. The Microsoft Network (msn.com) beat out America Online and others as the best commercial online service provider and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was voted the Net Innovator of the Year.

The new WebTV (webtv.com) Internet service through a TV set was selected as the best home Internet appliance.

Netscape Navigator was chosen as the best Internet desktop (netscape.com); Yahoo (yahoo.com) was named the best search engine; Pointcast (pointcast.com) was named the site with the best use of technology; and Progressive Networks RealAudio (real.com) was picked as the best Internet utility.