Voting Open for .INFO Awards

Afilias, the registry operator for the .Info domain extension, formally opened the 2009 .INFO Awards to public voting today. 

Anyone can now vote for their favorite of the top 10 .INFO Web sites until midnight on November 6, 2009. Prizes for the awards are allocated as: US$7,500 for the winner, US$5,000 for second place, and US$3,000 for third place.  The winners of the .INFO Awards will be announced on November 9.

Some interesting statistics on this year's awards: 

- The most popular categories for site submissions included special interest websites (28 percent), private websites (23 percent) and business/corporate websites (17 percent).

- Interest in the .INFO awards was truly global with submissions being entered from 18 countries. Germany led with 31 percent of submissions, followed by the United States at 19 percent and Russia at 12 percent. Notably, the UK accounted for 6 percent of submissions, while India and France each had 4 percent.  

"The .INFO domain is the global home for anyone with information to share. The submissions for this year's awards program reflect .INFO's global appeal and the inherent usefulness of an Internet domain entirely devoted to information," said Roland LaPlante, senior vice vresident and chief marketing officer for Afilias.

I was honored to be a member of the judges panel this year, along with Dominik Grollman, editor in chief of Internet World Business (Germany), Gautam Chatur, senior director at Qorvis Communications, Michael Stephanblome, managing director at AdJug UK, Katy Tafoya, Editor of ConstantChatter.com, and Philipp Grabensee, chairman of the Afilias Board of Directors.

What are you waiting for? Go ahead and vote for your favorite .INFO award now!