Posted by : Tom Doyle in (Internet & Computers, Rantings, Web Design, Web Development) 30th Oct, 2007
IIA Net Visionary Awards shortlist announced and it’s looking poor…
The IIA Net Visionary Awards shortlist have been announced and I have to say, I am very much disappointed with some of the shortlisted entrants.
For so long now, I have been touting the Net Visionary awards as the most prestigious Internet awards in Ireland today. They were the only awards that actually selected the best of the best from the innovative side of the Irish Internet Industry. Now though, I’m not so sure that the Net Visionary awards are actually any use at all. The shortlisted companies just don’t make any sense to me at all.
To give you a few examples:
The Internet Marketer of the year award it contains 3 people I have never heard of and nothing of their business either (apart from RaboDirect).
In this category ther were much better entrants. For example, Dave from Red Fly Marketing, one of the most competent online marketing people in Ireland at the moment.
I could easily critique each site of the shortlisted companies and give you issues with each of them, but I won’t bore you with that. I’ll just say, a simple backlink check says it all in my opinion.
On google, the following results appear:
Links to RedFlyMarketing.Com (212)
Links to Flowersmadeeasy.ie (9)
Links to NetAssist.ie (0)
Links to RaboDirect.ie (23)
Now I know there is a lot more to online marketing than SEO, but for me, it’s the most basic and the most important thing you can do in online marketing.
In saying that, I can’t give out too much about RaboDirect as I am familiar with their web ads and they are obviously doing quite well to build awareness. But I have never come across the other two companies and that worries me.
In other categories, best blogger is the first to come to mind.
Denise Cox, as much respect I have her, a best blogger shortlisted with a blog of no more than 80 articles is a bit boggling when you have many other prolific and great bloggers such as Michele Neylon, TheMenace, Dave (RedFlyMarketing), Red Cardinal, Alan O’Rourke etc.
Web Designer Excellence… well what can I say…
I can’t give out too much about Webfactory, they’ve always been very impressive in terms of design.
But IrishJobs.ie?????
Where’s the design? When was the last time they redesigned the website?
Graphedia - well lets just say… “Design is very subjective”…
Web Developer Excellence
Again, another category I obviously looked out for. IrishJobs.ie was shortlisted again, I can’t give out too much about that one as it was a pretty impressive application in its day. But, how long ago was it last upgraded? What great new innovative solutions have they brought to the web?? I can’t think of any by looking at the website to be honest.
Pigsback too would be another that I would question their innovation.
All in all, what a disappointing list of shortlisted companies. If these guys are supposed to be the top scale of the Irish Internet industry, we’ve a very poor showing this year.
Hi Tom.
I was going to stay out of this one and refrain from blogging about it.
While I am generally in agreement with you I think one fundamental point needs to be made and I think it is a fundamental problem that all awards that define their shortlists by public votes have.
The shortlist was generated by VOLUME of public votes and the voting system was hardly “secure”. I am not saying there was anything shady going on but I voted twice because there were some categories I thought two entrants should have received a vote. If I could vote twice and the only validation was an email address, that leaves a lot on the table. Was there even a mail sent out to check if each email address was REAL?
Regarding the Internet marketer category, I am far from bitter. I never made a huge push on getting votes nor was I motivated to do so. I did not deserve it because apart from a select few people, the RedFly client list is unknown at this point. Why should I get an award if the public do not know the companies RedFly has marketed?
I completely agree that there are some sites that should not even have been nominated but there are also some VERY deserving people and businesses there. Currently, the net visionaries are still the best we have
Hi Dave,
I tried not to blog about it myself but I just couldn’t help myself in the end.
I know you are not at all bitter, just as I am not either (which some people have said I am coming across as!).
I completely agree with you about the public voting. However, how come for so long, we have had people in the finals, that their peers respected?
For that reason alone, I don’t think it was solely public votes that got nominees shortlisted in previous years.
This year, as you well know, there was an unholy mix up with nominations, where a number of people didn’t make the nominations, even though they had been nominated. But let’s not go there.
In my opinion, RedFly should have been shortlisted simply because of the respect from other people in your area of business. There’s not one person in your area of expertise that would challenge your worth. Your blog is even a learning ground for a lot of young wanna be SEO’ers AND even established ones!
As far as no-one knowing your clients, is irrelevant, because we know YOU! You don’t have the big corporate banks on your books, but even still, people talk about you.
Now that in my opinion, is what should be rewarded.
The netvisionaries are still the best we have, because they only have the Spiders to compete with.
I can’t disagree that there are certainly some deserved nominees that have been shortlisted. But the competition around them is non-existant.
A new awards system needs to be set up… my task for next year. We need something like they have in soccer - “Players Player of the Year”.
Just to throw another spoke in the fire and I know I’ll get some backlash for this. BUT this year, when Darren was accepted as a nomination, we were asked straight away did we want to buy tickets for the event… say no more…
Tom