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Great unwashed choose nation’s best websites as NetGuide winners announced

After more than 200,000 votes from the public were tallied for this year’s People’s Choice NetGuide awards, the winners have all been crowing, with Stuff.co.nz picking up the top prize and tvnz.co.nz winning best media site.

Other notable winners in the awards included and Air New Zealand and .99’s response to the Listener for best web ad campaign, Telstra Clear for best ISP (with Orcon as runner-up), thewarehouse.co.nz winning best online shopping site and best launch, relaunch or innovation, Kiwibank for best financial services site, Air New Zealand’s airnz.mobi as best mobile site and House of Travel’s mixandmatch.co.nz as best travel site (see below for full list of winners).

Fairfax Media’s Group online editor Sinead Boucher says the team was thrilled to win site of the year ahead of TradeMe and Google.

“This award is really important to us because it is recognition from our readers that they like what we’re doing. Everything we do at Stuff is aimed at keeping our readers top of mind at all times. And with the country’s largest team of highly skilled journalists, we’re able to give them the very best news without fail every day.”

Stuff.co.nz also added to its haul by, somewhat confusingly, winning the best blog award and nabbing three runner up gongs for best media site, best homepage and best sports and recreation site.

Stuff.co.nz dominated the online news categories at the 2010 Qantas Media Awards, picking up the best design, best news, best sport, best business and best breaking news Story. “So, not only are we number one by people’s choice, we’re also the best news site according to the industry and the country’s biggest news site in terms of audience,” Boucher says.

Stuff.co.nz lost out to tvnz.co.nz for best media site, however. And nzherald.co.nz was fairly conspicuous by its absence, going home empty-handed on the night.

“I’m still buzzing as there’s no greater accolade than winning an award that’s voted for by our users”, says TVNZ’s general manager of digital media Tom Cotter. “… For us it’s all about providing the best multiplatform media experience possible and it’s a great thing to have those efforts recognised.”

Added to that, TVNZ’s digital marketing manager Nicola Reade is the woman behind beingdiabetic.co.nz, which won the lifestyle category. She ex-AIM Proximity, where she worked on the TVNZ site before moving to TVNZ in-house.

TVNZ’s head of digital channels and digital media, Eric Kearley added, “winning the award for best media site demonstrates the commitment it has to the strategy of inspiring New Zealanders on every screen.

“It’s testament to the focus of our talented teams but most of all it’s very humbling,” he says.

The newest screen it’s aiming to inspire New Zealanders on is the iPad, and, after a delay in having the app approved by Apple, it was released last week and became the number one free app at the iTunes Store.

“Our first priority was to deliver dedicated news content so the iPad app is all about news, sport, weather and what’s on TV,” says Cotter. “We have basically launched tvnz.co.nz in one free downloadable iPad app, so there’s up to the minute information from ONE News, including instant access to breaking news and news video plus more coming in the next few weeks.”

Upgrades with extra functionality and features will continue to be rolled out to the iPad and iPhone apps, plus more news video and live streaming of news features. There’s also a separate iPad application for TVNZ Ondemand on the cards, which Cotter says is part of the ongoing mission to get TVNZ content onto more platforms and devices.

The TVNZ iPhone app has had over 60,000 downloads since October, which kept it as the number one free news app in the iTunes Store for nine months. And it seems the free iPad news app is off to similar start (it can be downloaded for free at iTunes and you can give feedback about it on its Facebook page).

NETGUIDE AWARDS WINNERS:

SITE OF THE YEAR (sponsored by NetGuide):

Winner: Stuff.co.nz

First runner up: Trademe.co.nz

BEST BLOG (sponsored by Warehouse Stationery)

Winner: Stuff.co.nz

First runner-up: Blogger Bites Back

BEST COMMUNITY SITE (sponsored Adobe)

Winner: plunket.org.nz

First runner-up: grownups.co.nz

BEST EDUCATION SITE (sponsored by Epson)

Winner: studyit.org.nz

First runner-up: mathletics.co.nz

BEST EMPLOYMENT SITE (sponsored by The University of Auckland)

Winner: trademe.co.nz/jobs

First runner-up: seek.co.nz

BEST ENTERTAINMENT SITE (sponsored by Ticketmaster)

Winner: youtube.com

First runner-up: ticketmaster.co.nz

BEST FAMILY SITE (sponsored by TelstraClear)

Winner: kidspot.co.nz

First runner-up: familyfirst.org.nz

BEST FINANCIAL SERVICES SITE (sponsored by Acquire.co.nz)

Winner: kiwibank.co.nz

First runner-up: sorted.org.nz

BEST GAME RELATED SITE (sponsored by Verbatim)

Winner: mightyape.co.nz

First runner-up: gameplanet.co.nz

BEST GOVERNMENT SITE (sponsored by Toshiba)

Winner: ird.govt.nz

First runner-up: companies.govt.nz

BEST HOMEPAGE (sponsored by Air New Zealand)

Winner: google.co.nz

First runner-up: stuff.co.nz

BEST ISP (sponsored by Playtech)

Winner: TelstraClear

First runner-up: Orcon

BEST LIFESTYLE SITE (sponsored by Honda)

Winner: beingdiabetic.co.nz

First runner-up: healthyfood.co.nz

BEST MEDIA SITE (sponsored by Edifier)

Winner: tvnz.co.nz

First runner-up: stuff.co.nz

BEST MOBI SITE (sponsored by Vodafone)

Winner: airnz.mobi

First runner-up: m.trademe.co.nz

BEST NEW LAUNCH RELAUNCH OR INNOVATION (sponsored by The Warehouse)

Winner: thewarehouse.co.nz

First runner-up: mightyape.co.nz

BEST ONLINE SHOPPING SITE (sponsored by House of Travel)

Winner: thewarehouse.co.nz

First runner-up: mightyape.co.nz

BEST REAL ESTATE (sponsored by Resene)

Winner: trademe.co.nz/trade-me-property

First runner-up: realestate.co.nz

BEST SPORTS AND RECREATION SITE (sponsored by viewnewzealand.co.nz)

Winner: allblacks.com

First runner-up: stuff.co.nz

BEST TRADING SITE (sponsored by ESET)

Winner: trademe.co.nz

First runner-up: sella.co.nz

BEST TRAVEL SITE (sponsored by nzherald.co.nz)

Winner: houseoftravel.co.nz/mixandmatch.co.nz

First runner-up: airnewzealand.co.nz/grabaseat.co.nz

BEST WEB AD CAMPAIGN (sponsored by YAHOO!Xtra)

Winner: Air NZ Sign Language

First runner-up: yellowchocolate.co.nz

BEST YOUTH SITE (sponsored by TVNZ6)

Winner: whatnow.tv

First runner-up: radiochick.co.nz

NZ’S FAVOURITE SEARCH ENGINE (sponsored by NZDating.com)

Winner: google.co.nz

First runner-up: yahoo.co.nz

NZ’S FAV’ SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE (sponsored by NZCity.co.nz)

Winner: facebook.com

First runner-up: nzdating.com

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