Museum

The Internet Beacon

Museum of the Internet Beacon Awards

A brief history of the Internet Beacon Awards, for anyone who is interested (mainly me, I'm sure). With a working web site, the only constant is change.

This was the first award I offered when my ugly brown-and-yellow award site opened in the spring of 2000: The Beacon Award for Outstanding Web Sites. (Whew...long name!) Only this one award was offered (about the same as the current Gold award), other than the Site Of The Year Award. Initial ratings for this award were 3.5 from Award Sites! and 9 from WebsAwards. After a few months of operation, the ratings increased to Award Sites! 4.0 and WebsAwards 10.

There were major changes to the award program halfway through 2001. Along with shortening the name to The Beacon Awards, I added Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Merit levels, while retaining the Site Of The Year award. My new, personally-designed graphics were...well, they were very bad. The new award graphic was unpopular, and lasted only a few months.

In the fall of 2001, the Internet Beacon main site opened, re-establishing the lighthouse as the site logo with a new graphic. The new award graphic used the new Internet Beacon logo which I designed. I still wasn't completely happy with it, but it was certainly an improvement over the previous graphic.

A new Internet Beacon site design made its debut in the year 2002. The award graphic was pretty much the same, although I did tweak the lettering a bit. During this year, the award program ratings increased to Award Sites! 4.5 and WebsAwards 10 Supreme (one star).

There was a small change to the award program during the year 2003. I changed the Site Of The Year award to the Diamond award (although the function of the award remains the same). I again redesigned the Beacon Award graphic -- a little smaller, a little classier-looking. This was the first award graphic I had used with which I was really happy.

One major change for 2004 was the name change to the Internet Beacon Awards (to more closely associate with my main site), along with a slightly larger award graphic utilizing the new Internet Beacon logo (the painting based on my graphic). Another is the addition of the honorary Keeper Of The Light Award. I was also pleased and proud to see the program rated 5.0 by Award Sites!, rated 4 by the new WebsAwards, rated 4.0 by Olymp Award Index, rated Elite 5 by I.W.A.R.A. and designated as a World's Top Award by Website Awards.

The program had no changes in 2005, but I was pleased to see the program's rating at WebsAwards upgraded to 5 and the rating at I.W.A.R.A. upgraded to Elite 5+.

The criteria was tweaked a bit for 2006. We also joined United Web Site Award Givers, with an initial rating of 4. Criteria was adjusted for 2007 and 2008. In 2008, I was stunned to be honored with the Award Sites! 5.0+ rating. The site also received a 4 rating from Wsaptronic Award Index.

The Internet Beacon Award program was very proud to belong to the following organizations. Sadly, they are now gone, but they will never be forgotten.