(20 October 2007 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The web may no longer be an extension of a company's offline enterprise. It is now an existing entity by itself, calling for specialized competition and honours.

This feeling seemed to resonate at the first Genius of the Web Awards organized by Web 18, part of the Network 18 group. Research agency Frost and Sullivan was the process validator for the awards.

The awards were meant to recognize the best of players from the world of dotcom and acknowledge the outstanding achievements in the online space. Winners were announced in a total of 18 categories ranging from airlines, banking, mutual funds, utilities, social networking, e-mail, gaming, hotels, insurance amongst others.

Yahoo.co.in, Shaadi.com and Orkut.com were announced the winners of Best Portal (overall), Best Matrimonial portal and Best Social Networking website respectively.

Web18 CEO Surya Mantha said, "As the Indian Internet community grows, Web18 is committed to recognize the new and pioneering efforts that different organizations are putting into getting new technologies and content online. The web, more than any other media is a collaborative, nimble and explosive space and through Genius of the Web, it would be our privilege to honour all those men and women behind the success stories."

A complete list of winners is given below :