Voting opens for web's villains

The awards recognise the highs and lows of the web

Rogue diallers and the student allegedly behind the Sasser worm are amongst those nominated as the web's worst villains of 2004.

The awards, organised by technology press group Future Publishing, highlight organisations and services which shaped the net's highs and lows.

Web users can vote for the nominees until 11 October and winners of the Future UK Internet awards will be announced on 11 November.

The awards are now in their third year.

The shortlist of the websites and net services vying for recognition was selected by a panel of expert judges who are influential in the net industry.

Goodies too

The other organisations, individuals or services chosen by the judges for the web villains shortlist also include the Chinese government for its net censorship policies.

AWARD CATEGORIES Best Business ISP Best Consumer ISP Best Business Web Host Best Consumer Web Host Best Search Engine/Directory Customer Service Award sponsored by Internet & Broadband Advisor Best Site for Broadband sponsored by BroadbandNow Best Web Tool sponsored by .net Web Innovation of the Year Best Use of Internet in Business sponsored by Internet Works Best Reader Site sponsored by Practical Web Pages Internet Hero Internet Villain

Glastonbury music festival also received a nomination because of its online ticketing debacle. Music fans faced server errors and server busy messages when they tried to buy their tickets.

Bullying Online, the anti-spam campaign group Spamhaus and Fax Your MP are amongst those mentioned as heroes of the year.

The 13 categories also include best innovation of 2004.

Apple's iTunes and Skype, the service that allows broadband users to make phone calls over the net, will battle it out with Jabber Open instant messaging service, Napster and Onspeed.

There is also a category for best search engine, which sees Dmoz, the open directory project, competing alongside Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo.

Last year, Microsoft's Xbox Live picked up the best innovation prize, while Google was crowned best search engine.

Votes for the awards, which have been running for three years, will close on 11 October.