When we saw the list of Web sites nominated for last year’s Web awards, we wondered why we had put ourselves through this agonising process again. But once it was completed and we had our list of winners, we felt pleased and excited about the results, and now we can’t wait to share them with you. But first, we want to thank all our readers who nominated sites. Without your input, we couldn’t run the Web awards, and we wouldn’t come across many of the great sites you brought to our attention. Secondly, we’d like to thank the people who voted for the People’s Choice award winner. We really like the idea of our readers picking their favourite site — and you chose a great one.

There were thousands of sites nominated last year and it took several weeks to look at them all and slowly cull the list to just five finalists in each category. We added some new categories this year and if we had more time and more resources, we would like to increase that number still further, as there are so many good Australian Web sites to consider. However, we’re very happy with the ones that were judged to be the best in each section and the sites singled out for a Highly Commended award because they were such strong contenders.

Here were the winning sites of the NetGuide Australian Web Awards for 2006:

Best search site
Google www.google.com.au

Highly Commended
Live search http://search.live.com

Best e-tail site
oo.com.au www.oo.com.au

Highly Commended
Deals Direct www.dealsdirect.com.au

Best classifieds site
SEEK www.seek.com.au

Best finance site
ninemsn Money www.money.ninemsn.com.au

Highly Commended
Understanding Money www.understandingmoney.gov.au

Best comparison site
Broadband Choice http://bc.whirlpool.net.au

Best travel/tourism site
Total Travel www.totaltravel.com.au

Best parenting site
Essential Baby www.essentialbaby.com.au

Best government site
NetAlert www.netalert.net.au

Best small business
LegalMart www.legalmart.com.au

Best health and fitness site
Better Health Channel www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au

Highly Commended
myDr www.mydr.com.au

Best community/charity site
SANE www.sane.org

Best media site
ABC News Online www.abc.net.au/news

Highly Commended
NEWS.com.au www.news.com.au

Best social networking site
RSVP www.rsvp.com.au

Best entertainment site
Yahoo!7 Music http://au.launch.yahoo.com

Best lifestyle site
CitySearch www.citysearch.com.au

Best sports site
Fox Sports www.foxsports.com.au

Best kids’/youth site
Habbo Hotel www.habbo.com.au

Best new site
ActNow www.actnow.com.au

People’s Choice award
Kidspot www.kidspot.com.au