Who are the Webbys for?

Probably the same people who think Flash intro pages are a good idea.

That appears to be who runs the show, anyway. The Webbys are the only web award that I’m aware of where the agency, as in ad agency, is given prominent mention.

What has me spun up about this? Best Navigation/Structure: Ikea Dream Kitchen, which appears to have won based solely on a Flash-based VR click-and-hold interface which, needless to say, is badly broken on text-based browsers. Please tell me how this qualifies as best structure, guys.

All is not awful in the Webby world; I don’t think I would have found PoetryFoundation.org without the awards. But seriously guys. I think the whole Web 2.0 thing is overwrought, but I can’t help but think Web 1.0 when I look at that list of awardees. (And yes, I know Flickr is there too; I believe the exception proves the rule.)