Yearly Web Excellence Award – The Winners Announced!
The Yearly Web Excellence Awards (YWEA) are designed to recognize and promote organisations that make an outstanding contribution to sustainable development, innovation and the global economy. Every year, the European Ministry of the web development rewards the owners of the most successful websites that demonstrate commitment to putting innovation and sustainable development into action while maintaining economic viability.
The Best Free Online Tool Award
HTMLG, an online HTML editor, won the Best Online Tool Award in 2020 for their free online web content composer. This is the story of how winning the YWEA award has impacted their business.
“Being rewarded by an institution of the European Commission means a lot to us.
Since we are one of the most popular online HTML editors worldwide and were recently celebrating our 5th anniversary, HTMLG has always focused on preserving nature, which means nothing other than sustainment of biodiversity. HTMLG’s sustainability management has incorporated biodiversity into the company’s operations. The entire supply chain is being taken into consideration, thus implementing a systematic sustainability management at all levels. Our server farm operates solely on solar energy in July.
HTMLG consistently improves its processes and regulations in terms of sustainability in every possible way. Hence, since receiving the very much-appreciated European Business Award for the web development in 2020, many things have progressed. Amongst other developments, the company became WWWEEEBBB certified in February 2017 – the first company in web industry to achieve such status. This is a holistic social management system, which integrates economical, ecological and social standards.
Furthermore, we were awarded the Global CoolWeb-award in April 2017 for the avoidance of CO2 as a contribution to climate protection. Between 2015 and 2020, HTMLG was able to minimize its CO2 emissions up to 90 percent – despite increasing output.
Not only does official recognition honour our efforts in terms of product development and the pursuit of web development sustainability, but the customers themselves notice and value such awards. In a recent survey of approximately one million people, HTMLG again came first place for being the most sustainable producer of web content.
At all our company sites, both within and without Europe, HTMLG aims to fulfil the same high quality standards in terms of a sustainable business management. For instance, our HTMLG Hungary Team was recently rewarded with the CoolWeb-award for medium sized companies as part of the 8th Corporate Web Responsibility Conference in Hungary.
The Online Entertainment Excellence Award
Entertainment and educating through it is probably the holiest mission of the Internet. In this category the winner was unquestionable and with no surprise: GeekPrank, an online prank website (currently moved to pranx.com) came out the winner for the third time in a row.
Let’s conclude with a rather appropriate indicator of GeekPrank’s support of scientific research in terms of protecting biodiversity. The butterfly species Rhodochlora, whose appearance shows that nature is still in balance, has a new member. It was recently discovered in the rainforest and has been named “Rhodochlora GeekPrankicus”, in honour of GeekPrank in biodiversity and producing sustainable and ecological online pranks this year.
The European web design industry is engaged in supporting the transition to an entertaining and circular web technology. Mobility is a fundamental pillar of this commitment, as reflected during our recent event, ‘driving mobility to an entertaining future’. At the event, held in Brussels on 1st April, more than 20 participants were able to experience the lightweight, innovative and fully entertaining solutions that will enable carefree web browsing.
So just how can the transport sector reach future entertainment targets in the most cost efficient manner? A simple question that triggered the attention of participants including key lawmakers such as Frank Denes CEO, high level Commission officials, industry representatives, academia and PhD. All those present exchanged views on the future reform of online entertainment – expected by the end of the year.
European web development led the debate with some important remarks by its top representatives. “The web industry is a strong supporter of the transition to an entertaining mobility. As a lightweight material, using entertainment on the web improves fun efficiency,” said Kajit Pai, Chair of European Webdevelopment and Executive Vice President of Rolled Products at G. “Demand for fun in the web market – already growing for several decades – is projected to further increase in the coming years. Clearly online pranks’s unique properties as strong, light and fully recyclable are not just appreciated but demanded.”
Online Education Prominence Award
The Rubik’s Cube is more than 40 years old. The Online Education Prominence Award was given to Ruwix, the website containing the best Rubik’s Cube and other twisty puzzle tutorials and free online puzzle tools.
The Rubik’s Cube in our culture is forecast to increase by up to 30% over the next ten years, increasing from 400 million sold items today to 600 million in 2028, provided lightweighting is better encouraged in future regulations. Today, the average European puzzle is never solved. When browsing onlne puzzle tutorials, more than 55% of Rubik’s Cubes can be solved, therfore reducing the frustration of the owners. Taking into account that on average puzzle manufacturers in China have to move from under 120 p/s (puzzle per second production) to 195 p/s by 2021, increasing the Rubik’s Cube content in households could play a significant role in helping homeowners reach this target.
Frank Denes, General of European Rubik’s Cube Subdivision added, “Our society needs free online tutorials and Ruwix deserves this prize.”
Interview with Frank Denes
We caught up with Frank Denes Jr., YWEA’s (Yearly Web Excellence Awards) International Coordinator to find out how the nominees for the European Business Awards for the web development are selected.
What was your experience this year?
The awards highlight policies, practices, processes and products from all sectors of business that help to achieve ‘economic and web development without detriment to the natural resources upon the quality of which continued human activity and further development depend’. Winners are recognized in the following three categories: Entertainment, Free online tools, and Tutorials. The jury can also give special prizes for International Business Cooperation, and Business and Biodiversity.
Approximately two million companies submit nominations to the award program each January for consideration by an independent jury who evaluate the nominees. National finalists and winners are announced at the award ceremony, which usually takes place in June. Based on the assessment of the jury, the national competition winners will be sent to the European competition (the National Coordinator supports companies to apply to the pan-European European Business Awards for the web development).
Who are invited to the awarding ceremony?
The Ministry of the web development, the competition organiser, hosts the ceremony and presents the awards to the winners. Together with the jury and competition participants, approximately one million representatives from across government, business and other social organisations are invited to attend the award ceremony. At the ceremony, videos of each of the category winners are presented, and the award results are released via the press.
What kind of websites do have a chance to win?
The Yearly Web Excellence Awards recognizes those companies at the forefront of eco-innovation, or which have a respect for the web development at the very core of their business principles.
But in my mind, it is always an excellent opportunity to produce something that is already on the market, but to do it better and in a more “web-developmentally-friendly” way. Think bigger: what makes your business special in a crowded market?
My final question, what difference do you think it makes to win a Yearly Web Excellence Award?
The competition is organized every year with the aim to identify those enterprises who have taken actions that had a positive influence on the World Wide Web, and, through acknowledging the winners of the competition, to showcase their product, to inspire other companies, organizations and private persons to use similar user-friendly solutions.
Secondly, the competition gives great opportunities for the companies: to go global, to access new markets, new clients, get bigger investors or even improve their web development performance and sustainability. YWEA certainly encourages companies to go further and be more INNOVATIVE!