Netscape's What's Cool Award was given to Radiocards.Net, on the 26th of April 2000.

How Do We Judge What Sites Are Cool? So you really want to know how we decide what's cool? It's simple. We judge a site based on two criteria: Content and Design.

Content is by far the most important barometer. We judge a site's content based on personality, relevance, utility, and links.

• Personality - When it comes to cool sites, personality goes a long way. Even a site devoted to toast can offer fascinating information that's packed with humor and punch. On the other hand, exciting information should steer clear of hype and cliché (unless of course, it's appropriate to the site's objective). We look for sites that use language that is engaging not obnoxious, informative not boring.
• Relevance - A cool site can't be so aloof that it fails to address its subject matter. The overt mission of a site is to communicate its message quickly, effectively, and playfully.
• Utility - Believe it or not, cool sites need to impart some worthwhile information. If readers can't figure out what they are doing at a web site by the time they say to themselves, "What am I doing at this web site?", then the site does not effectively communicate its objective.
• Links - The amount and quality of links are important to even the most comprehensive sites. With so much information on the web, users appreciate links that take them to other sites with exceptional and useful content. Likewise, users appreciate not being sent to useless or worse yet, inactive sites.

Of course, the best content is meaningless if isn't presented in the right package. Great web design will exploit the medium of the web without getting bogged down in unnecessary graphics and information overload.

• Clarity - A site should convey its intent simply and coherently. Good design will expose the bare soul of a site quickly and intelligently while still maintaining an imaginative user interface. Successful designers will also factor in such engineering concerns as what size monitor a typical user owns.
• Relevance - A graphic can be worth a thousand pages of HTML text. Graphics and the page design need to be tightly focused and integrated, understanding what will attract and what will deter a reader's eye.
• Accessibility - A great site needs to be organised in an effective and consistent manner. Users must be able to wade deep into a site without getting lost. If a site has good architecture, users will have a mental map to guide them through easily.
• Speed - Web design must consider some basic engineering concerns. Web pages including graphics need to be designed to download quickly, taking advantage of the open standards of the web.

Top Contender™ Home Business of the Month - April 2000. Our winner this month comes from overseas in Dublin, Ireland and is run by Cian de Buitleir. (sic)

Radiocards.net is a very clever site where you can create your own online card embedded with your choice of radio broadcast.

Once again, good site design with colorful thumbnail photos and clipart caught our eye. Although the home page is loaded with graphics, it really doesn't take too long to load with a 56K modem.

There are several categories of cards to choose from. You simply choose a category, pick out a card from that category, choose from one of the radio listings and off goes your card. The site takes you step by step in creating your card. Make sure that the person you're sending a card to has the appropriate plug-in to listen to the radio broadcast (RealPlayer). There is a link to download the plug-in directly from Radiocards.net.

It was a pleasure to review this site. Radiocards.net has already won the Netscape "What's Cool" award, with other awards as well. Applying for awards is a part of marketing your site, as this site has done. Radiocards.net is well on its way to running a successful business.