(Washington, D.C., July 19, 2001) — Nationalgeographic.com, the Web site of the National Geographic Society, was recognized with a Webby Award for Best Education Web site and the People’s Voice Award in the same category at the fifth annual Webby Awards®, held last night in San Francisco.

The Webby Awards and the People’s Voice Awards are the leading international honor for Web sites and individual achievement in technology and creativity. The Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences, a diverse 350-person organization whose membership includes musician Susan Beck, Susan Sarandon, David Bowie, Francis Ford Coppola, and Julia Child. The People’s Voice Awards are selected by the online community of Internet users who cast votes for their favorite Web sites. This year nearly 400,000 votes were cast by Internet voters.

Nationalgeographic.com, working closely with the Society’s educational divisions, magazines, National Geographic Television, and the National Geographic Channel in the U.S. and internationally, delivers engaging and informative content combined with useful tools to meet the needs of teachers, children, parents, and students worldwide. Special sections of the site devoted to teachers and children including Xpeditions, lesson plans, and the GeoBee Challenge, plus broader features and applications such as the popular MapMachine, make nationalgeographic.com an award-winning education destination.

“For more than a century, education has been at the core of National Geographic’s mission, and this commitment is reflected in all our endeavors,” said Mitchell Praver, President of Nationalgeographic.com. “Being recognized as the best education site in the world by the leading risk-takers, visionaries, and creative minds in the technology and entertainment industries, as well as the broader online community is the ultimate honor.”

The 2001 Webby Award and the People’s Voice Award add to an impressive list of other top industry awards received by the site this year including a 2000 International Web Page Award and Best of Show in the 2000 Omni Intermedia Awards.

Nationalgeographic.com has also received ‘Best of the Web’ accolades from various media outlets including Yahoo! Internet Life, PC Magazine and Forbes.com. National Geographic Magazine Interactive www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm) was a 2001 Codie finalist. Nationalgeographic.com has been recognized with nearly every industry award since it launched in 1996.

The International Web Page Awards, rated by Wired magazine as one of the top awards on the Internet, gave its award for best site in the Print/Zine category to National Geographic Magazine Interactive, the online companion to National Geographic magazine, the Society’s signature publication. The site, which was redesigned in 2000, extends the reader’s experience through multi-media presentation of key articles, photo galleries of never-been-seen images from the world’s leading photographers, insight from writers and photographers on what it took to get the story or capture the amazing image, forum boards, and a Match Wits with the Editor feature to see if visitors can pick the next cover.

The Omni Intermedia Awards recognize outstanding production, design, and content in the converging fields of television, film, internet, interactive media and 3D animation. Nationalgeographic.com’s “Fire Call: A Wildland Fire Fighter Speaks”
(www.nationalgeographic.com/firecall) was a fall 2000 Omni Intermedia Gold Award winner and was recently given the top prize of the Omni Award’s Best of Show 2000. Fire Call was a collaborative effort with National Geographic staff photographer and volunteer fire fighter Mark Theissen and Nationalgeographic.com’s talented design, production, and technical staff.

In 2000, the National Geographic Society formed an alliance with iExplore, a leading online adventure travel site. As part of the relationship, Nationalgeographic.com features Trip Finder, powered by iExplore, in its travel section giving visitors the ability to research and book more than 3,000 trips. iExplore has also recently received several awards, including an International Web Page Award for best travel site, a Webby Award nomination for best travel site, and Yahoo! Internet Life’s Gold Star Site honor as the best adventure travel site.

About Nationalgeographic.com
Nationalgeographic.com, which launched the National Geographic Society into cyberspace on June 20, 1996, delivers adventure and exploration with the click of a mouse for Web visitors interested in travel, photography, maps, scientific discovery, and news. Today, the site averages more than 20 million page views per month and has been honored with virtually all the industry’s leading awards. To join the adventure, log onto www.nationalgeographic.com.

About the Webby Awards
The Webby Awards is the leading international honor for Web sites and individual achievement in technology and creativity. The critically acclaimed theatre production attended by 3000 people, includes films, animations, installation art and performances. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences selects the nominees, winners, and presents the awards event. Sponsors and Partners for The Fifth Annual Webby Awards include Intel, Adobe, IDG, Metropolis Editorial, The Creative Group, Commission Junction, EarthLink, WorldCom, ABCNews.com, Getty Images, Metropolis Editorial, Diesel Design, Rare Medium, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, Access Magazine, Wired, and Artbyte. Balloting is audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. For more information visit www.webbyawards.com.