REGULATION WEBSITE OF THE YEAR AWARD 2011

Article 1 Description award, MetrixLab and partners

1.1 The Website of the Year award is the people’s choice award for the best website. The award is independent and objective and is organized by online market research agency MetrixLab. MetrixLab is located in Rotterdam and is the market leader in online consumer research. MetrixLab supports many clients worldwide with the development of new products and packages, optimizing their advertising campaigns and websites and improving employee and customer satisfaction. In 2008 MetrixLab was named Market Research Agency of the Year 2008 by the MOA. With more than 140 employees and a turnover of more than 25 million euro, MetrixLab is one of the biggest and fastest growing online market research specialists. Besides the home market in the Netherlands, MetrixLab has offices in Germany, United Kingdom, France, United States and Spain.

1.2 The Website of the Year award is an international award and is organized in seven different countries: the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Brazil.

Article 2 Participation, selection procedure nominees and definition categories

2.1 The organization of the Website of the Year award offers its participants to compete in one category per contribution. De selection committee has the right to group the website in another category when the website fits better within the criteria of this category. It is possible for a website to win the prize of best website and most popular website within the same category.

2.2 The Website of the Year has 21 categories. There will be at least 12 nominated websites in each category. De selection of the nominees is based on:

Winners of the previous edition.
The top 100 websites according to Hitwise.
Customer research among panel members of OpinionBar.
Sites which are not admitted by the above described selection elements can subscribe themselves to be considered for a wildcard. The procedure with the wildcards will proceed as follows:

The subscriber of a site will hand over data about the number of visits and the number of visitors per month.
The organization will select the websites that will be considered for a wildcard.
There is a maximum of 30 wildcards available.
In each category there is a maximum of 2 websites that have received a wildcard.
If there are more than 30 websites that will be considered for a wildcard, there will be a draw.

2.3 The results of the above mentioned four steps (winners of the previous edition, websites with the most traffic, results of the panel research and the wildcards) will be thoroughly compared with each other and will result in a final list of nominees in each category.

2.4 The 21 categories of the award are chosen to represent all the important segments of the website categories. Below you will find a list of the definitions of each category as determined by the selection committee. These definitions may be altered at all times by the selection committee.

Automotive: Sites that focus on automotive topics.
Career: Sites that can be helpful for one’s personal career, by providing either information about work related topics, job offers or network possibilities.
Communities & Social networks: Platforms for discussion or for mapping or extending ones social network.
Entertainment: Websites where people go for fun, with the main reason to be entertained or websites about entertainment.
Finance: Websites offering financial services or products, or focusing on financial news and information.
Games: Platforms that provide one or more games, or sites which main function is to link to games.
Telecom: Sites offering telecom services or products.
Government: Sites of governmental organizations/departments or governmental websites with information about a certain topic or program.
News & Information: Websites that focus on news in general, or news and information about a certain topic.
Educational: Websites of educational institutes or information about education and educational possibilities. Also websites with educational content (online courses) could be nominated in this category.
Search & Find: Websites for searching in general or searching something specific.
Shopping: Websites offering products or services online, either of their own, or advertised by users of the website.
Sports: Sites with news or information about sport in general, a specific sport or a sports club.
Housing & Interior: Sites for housing, sites about interior (design)
Leisure & Travel: Sites for looking for information about traveling or booking trips or accommodation.
TV & Radio: TV and radio that is being broadcasted, for example sites of a broadcasting network or broadcasting association.
Charities: Sites of NGOs/nonprofit organizations.
Health & Well-being: Information about health (care) or general well-being, or sites with information about health or well-being products.
Dating: Dating and meeting new people.
Comparison: Comparing products and/or prices of different providers.
Weather & Traffic: Websites focusing on weather forecast, the current traffic situation or route planning.

Article 3 Voting procedure

3.1 In each category, the voter may choose one of the websites nominated by the organization.

3.2 Every voter can make a choice for one website in each category on which he/she wants to vote. Subsequently the voter can judge the website on the following criteria:

Content (1 to 5 stars)
Navigation (1 to 5 stars)
Design (1 to 5 stars)
Recommendation intention (scale of 0 to 10)

3.3 Then, to confirm his/her vote and participate in the prize draw, he/she must register, leaving a valid email address and his/her full name on the website. The information on the manner of participating will also be given on the website.

3.4 A check will be carried out so that a person may only vote once with the same email address: an email address with a confirmation request will be sent out. The vote and the participation in the election will only be effective after the participant has clicked on the confirmation link sent in this email.

3.5 Persons who try to use multiple email addresses to increase their chances of winning will be excluded from the election.

Article 4 Recruitment of votes

4.1 The recruitment of votes goes by the website www.websiteoftheyear.co.uk, partner websites, other sites which pay attention to the award and the websites of the nominees. About 2 million voters from previous editions of the research in the participating countries will receive an invitation to vote again. The call to vote trough the nominated websites will proceed as follows:

The nominated websites will receive a set with personal banners in eight different sizes and a media kit with suggestions about their own invitations for example a newsletter and promoting the nomination on their own website in order to recruit votes.
Nominated websites will publish the logo of the award on their website during the running time of the award. To ensure that every website has an equal chance at winning, the running time is established at six weeks.
When a consumer clicks on the banner of the award, he/she will directly land on the voting page.
After finishing voting in a certain category, the consumer will be able to vote in other categories as well.

Article 5 Selection of the winners

5.1 The voting per category will lead to two prizes: (1) the most popular website en (2) the best website. MetrixLab has developed the following methodology:

5.2 The most popular website: the website with the highest amount of votes in a certain category will be elected as the most popular website.

5.3 The best website: the voters are asked to judge the content, navigation and design of the website. In order to count the winners an average score of the reviews will be calculated. A minimum of 1000 votes is required to win the award for best website.

5.4 The website with the best relative review within its category will be elected winner of the Website of the Year award.

Article 6 Prizes on offer

6.1 The prizes will be announced on the website www.websiteoftheyear.co.uk.

Article 7 Allocation and sending out of prizes

7.1 A draw by lots will be made out of all participants who have taken part in the vote and left their full name and email address. Only one prize per winner and per household (person residing under the same roof) will be allocated.

7.2 The winners will be identified by the email address they have left on the website www.websiteoftheyear.co.uk.

7.3 The prizes will be made available as soon as possible after the announcement of the result of the game and after the winners have been determined.

7.4 The winners will be informed and contacted by MetrixLab by email, at the end of the draw by lots. This email will ask the winner to respond, indicating his name and address, hence enabling MetrixLab to send him his prize. If the winners do not respond to the email within 15 days of this message, a second email will be sent to the winner. Should the winner not respond to the email within 15 days of this second message, the prize would be deemed lost and would not be allocated to the winner who cannot make any claim on these grounds.

7.5 The winners will receive their prizes at their home address or at the address they indicated in their email. MetrixLab will send the winners their prizes by mail and will not be held responsible for delays, losses or errors attributable to the post office. The winners will be fully responsible for the validity of the contact details given when participating in the game.

7.6 MetrixLab declines any liability for any incidents which might occur during possession and enjoyment of the prize and/or resulting from its use. In no event may any cash consideration be demanded as a substitution for the prizes on offer which may neither be returned nor exchanged.

7.7 In case of force majeure, MetrixLab reserves the right to replace the prize won with a prize of an equivalent value and nature.

7.8 The liability of MetrixLab is strictly limited to making available the prizes actually and legitimately won.

7.9 No list of winners will be communicated by telephone or in writing. The winners will be individually notified by email.

7.10 If one of the winners is under the age of 18, their prize will be issued to their legal guardian.

Article 8 Reservations

8.1 MetrixLab, particularly in case of force majeure, reserves the right to shorten, extend, suspend, modify or cancel the game.

8.2 These changes will however be notified by all appropriate means, particularly on the website www.websiteoftheyear.co.uk.

Article 9 Liability

9.1 MetrixLab will not incur any liability whatsoever if, in case of force majeure, or events independent of its will, it has to cancel this game, reduce it or extend it, postpone it or modify its terms and conditions.

9.2 In all cases, it reserves the possibility of extending the participation period and increasing the number of prizes.

9.3 Participation implies knowledge and acceptance of the characteristics and limitations of the internet and particularly the lack of protection of certain data against potential fraudulent use or hacking, or the risks of contamination by potential viruses present on the network.

9.4 MetrixLab declines any liability in case of incorrect use or incident linked to the use of the computer, access to the internet, the telephone line or any other technical connection, or the sending out of forms to an erroneous or incomplete address.

9.5 MetrixLab cannot be held responsible for any malfunctioning of the internet, the internet service providers telecommunications networks, or the incompatibility of the browsers used by the voters to connect to the game’s website.