Lisa Kudrow to host Webby Awards

Lisa Kudrow has been tapped to host the Webby Awards on June 13 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York where she'll accept one of the trophies for giving the best individual performance in an online video.

She's being awarded for appearing in her Web series "Web Therapy," which won best comedy: long-form for a second consecutive year. It's been picked up by Showtime as a new TV series to air in July.

Part of her job while emceeing the gala will be to enforce the strict rule that winners must keep their acceptance speeches to five words or less.

Webby Awards will be streamed lived on the organization's Facebook page.

-- Tom O'Neil

Photo: Lisa Kudrow. Credit: L/Studio

Poll: Will Justin Bieber win a Webby Award?

Now that Justin Bieber has conquered much of the modern world, can he claim a Webby Award next? His nomination for "Justin Bieber Takes Over Funny or Die" competes among the online film and video categories for best "comedy: individual short or episode."

(A word of warning: Links for the next two videos contain profanity.)

It's up against "Between Two Ferns," which may have star power, but, frankly, is stupid -– just Steve Carell mocking Zach Galifianakis for being fat. It's really thin on humor. Ditto the nominee titled "Kenny Gets Signed by K-Swiss." Don't even bother to watch it.

However, Bieber faces tough competition from a spoof of "Inglourious Basterds" titled "Grammar Nazis" and the Onion News Network's "Police Slog Through 40,000 Insipid Party Pics to Find Cause of Dorm Fire." They're both hilarious.

Every award category will have two winners, one that's chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and the other -– called the "People's Voice" -- by Web users. Obviously, Bieber will win the Web award because he has millions of fans, but will he also win the academy's award?

Winners will be revealed on May 3. Cast your votes in this category at the Webby site. Vote in all categories here.

-- Tom O'Neil

Bieber Takes Over from Justin Bieber

Photo credit: FunnyOrDie.com

Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia top Webby Awards Top 10 Web Moments of the Decade

The Webby Awards, the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, released its list of the Top 10 Most Influential Internet Moments of the Decade. The list, which covers everything from the rise of Craigslist to the 2008 presidential campaign, underscores the Internet's impact on major decisions in the lives of people around the globe. 

The list is as follows:

Craigslist's expansion outside of its home turf of San Francisco, which revamped the accepted model of classified advertising. (2000)

The launch of Google AdWords, which, as the Webbys put it, "turned advertising on its head" by opening the marketplace to any business.(2001)

The launch of Wikipedia, which, with its 14 million articles in 271 different languages, unites readers and researchers from around the world to collaborate on educational and informational projects. (2001)

The closure of Napster, which in turn gave rise to a flood of media-sharing sites, from iTunes to Hulu (2001)

Google's IPO, which helped to turn the search engine, which claims Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Earth and a host of other innovations, into the most dominant and influential company of the decade. (2004).

The online video revolution, led by YouTube, which made amateurs into Web stars and further changed the means of how news, entertainment and advertising reaches the population. (2006)

Facebook opens to non-college students in 2006, the same year that Twitter launches. Both have immediate and lasting effects on both the course of social networking media, but also how people connect and interact with each other. (2006)

The debut of the iPhone, which turned smart phones into items of everyday necessity, and proved that there was indeed an app for every occasion. (2007)

The U.S. presidential campaign utilized the Internet to inspire (and at times, enrage) voters to become a part of the political process through online video, fund-raising and social media. The result was a completely new paradigm for American politics. (2008)

The protests over the Iranian presidential election of 2009 showed that social networking media like Twitter could be used as a force for positive change in a regime that, despite its best efforts, could not censor the will of the people and its technology. (2009)

And in other Webby news, the 14th annual Webby Awards will be announced in April 2010. The awards pay tribute to excellence on the 'Net in a variety of categories, including news, advertising and online film and video. 

-- Paul Gaita

Photo: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on Jan. 20, 2009, shortly before being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Credit: Getty Images.

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Webby Award nominations announced

Hollywood’s funniest crashed the nominees for the 13th Annual Webby Awards, announced this morning.

The Webbys honor the best in Internet content, from online film and video to interactive advertising and mobile.

In the entertainment video races, stars turned up in multiple entries, including "Prop. 8: The Musical" (Jack Black, John. C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris, Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph), "The Great Schlep" (Sarah Silverman), "Children's Hospital" (Rob Corddry, Megan Mullally, Lake Bell, Ed Helms); "Green Porno" (Isabella Rossellini), LStudio's "Web Therapy" (Lisa Kudrow), "Bag the Bag" (Ed Norton), and "Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad" (Paris Hilton).

Competing in the comedy series category are the WB’s “Childrens’ Hospital,” NBC’s “The Office: The Outburst,” Comedy Central’s “The Weekly Evils,” the Onion’s “Today Now” and Big Fat Brain’s “You Suck at Photoshop on My Damn Channel.” Drama series contenders include NBC’s “Heroes: The Recruit,” IQ-145 Productions’ “IQ-145,” quarterlife online’s “quarterlife,” Hackelheimer Productions’ “Speedie Date” and Filmaka’s “The Ten Commandments.”

Leading the pack in overall nominations are NYTimes.com (13), NBC.com (12), the Onion (8) and BBC (8).

"Even during challenging times, the Internet has proven to be a breeding ground for experimentation and innovation," Webby Awards executive director David-Michel Davies said. "It's inspiring to see so many of this year's nominees harnessing the power of social networks, mobile and video to push the medium in exciting new directions."

The full list of nominees is at www.webbyawards.com/nominees.

Winners will be announced May 5 and honored during a ceremony in New York City on June 8. Seth Meyers will host the award show, which limits its acceptance speeches to five words.

— Denise Martin

Photo: Scene from "Quarterlife" / quarterlife.com

Seth Meyers to host Webby Awards

Seth Meyers is coming back for more as host of the 13th annual Webby Awards.

The 35-year-old Meyers, who serves as both the head writer for “Saturday Night Live” and anchor of the program’s popular sketch “Weekend Update,” hosted the ceremonies for the first time last year.

The awards event will take place June 8 at the New York City restaurant Cipriani Wall Street, and the nominees will be announced Tuesday, April 14.

The Webby Awards honors excellence on the Internet in the form of websites, online film and video, mobile sites, and interactive advertising, among other areas.

-- Kate Stanhope