''net'' was a monthly print

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

that published content on

web development Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications, ...

and

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

. Founded in 1994, the magazine was published in the UK by

Future plc Future plc is a British publishing company. It was started in 1985 by Chris Anderson (entrepreneur), Chris Anderson. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History 1985–2012 The company was ...

. It was widely recognized as the premiere print publication for

web design Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code a ...

ers. The magazine was initially aimed at the general Internet user, but was adapted into a title aimed at professional

web designer Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code an ...

s and

web developer A web developer is a programmer who develops World Wide Web applications using a client–server model. The applications typically use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the client, and any general-purpose programming language in the server. is used ...

s under the editorship of Dan Oliver. Its sister publication, the

-focused Creative Bloq

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, was launched by Dan Oliver in 2012, and is estimated to receive over two million monthly readers according to analytics firm SimilarWeb. The magazine, and its parent

, were also known for their annual The Net Awards, which was an awards body recognizing outstanding achievements in the

industry. The magazine ended publication in June 2020.

History

The magazine was founded in 1994, originally titled as ".net", with the first issue appearing in December. Its then editor was Richard Longhurst and assistant editor was

Ivan Pope Ivan Pope (born 1961) is a British technologist, involved in a number of early internet developments in the UK and across the world, including coining the term '' cybercafe'' at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. He was a founder of two o ...

. It was initially aimed at the general Internet user in the early days of the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

gaining wider momentum. Regular contributors included Bill Thompson and Davey Winder. In 2001,

Haymarket Media Group Haymarket Media Group is a private media company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has publications in the consumer, business and customer sectors, both print and online. It operates exhibitions allied to its own publications, and p ...

closed its competing internet magazine ''The Net'' and sold the subscriber list and the rights to the masthead of the magazine to Future in exchange of Future's football title ''Total Football'', subsequently Future absorbed ''The Net'' into ''.net''. In August 2006 (Issue 152), the magazine was redesigned to include a new themed cover design and a new inner layout. Other changes were the addition of a new section at the back of the magazine called ''Trash'' replacing comics by

drew Drew may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places ;In the United States * Drew, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Drew, Mississippi, a city * Drew, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Drew, Oregon, an unincorporated community * Drew County, Arkansas ...

and the Hi! Monkey Soon after the redesign a column entitled ''Web Drifter'' was introduced; written by

Martin Sargent Martin Sargent is an American television personality and was co-host of the This WEEK in FUN podcast with Sarah Lane. He is most well known from his time as a Segment Producer on TechTV's ''The Screen Savers'' and later as the host of his own ...

, it usually contained issues and language considered vulgar by the readership, and it was subsequently cancelled. Also in August 2006, the ''Penny Forum'' section was removed but reinstated for issue 153 onwards due to large reader response to its removal. Another addition was ''Web Pro'' in the latter half of the magazine. This is sectioned into several topics (web security, careers, search engine news and web hosting) and written by industry professionals. There is also a web

FAQ A frequently asked questions (FAQ) list is often used in articles, websites, email lists, and online forums where common questions tend to recur, for example through posts or queries by new users related to common knowledge gaps. The purpose of a ...

section. In December 2013 (issue 248) it was re-badged as "net" to end confusion with Microsoft's .NET Framework which launched in 2002. Along with the name change the magazine was given the tagline "The voice of web design". Future announced in April 2020 that it would cease publication due to commercial reasons caused by

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

with issue 332 (June 2020) being the last.

Net Awards

The ".net" brand was known throughout the web development industry for its long-running annual The Net Awards, which awards outstanding achievements in the field. The awards recognized the new talent, trends, and technologies that had pushed the web forward over the previous twelve months, as well as recognizing outstanding contributions by established individuals and companies. The annual judging panel was made up of notable industry veterans and thought leaders. Categories included Agency of the Year, Individual Outstanding Contribution, Developer of the Year, and Best Collaborative Project. Notable past winners include

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

(redesign of the year),

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropbox w ...

(mobile app of the year),

Old Spice Old Spice is an American brand offering male grooming products including aftershaves, deodorants and antiperspirants, shampoos, body washes, shaving cream, and soaps. It is manufactured by Procter & Gamble. Old Spice was launched as Early Amer ...

(viral campaign of the year),

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

(mobile site of the year), and

Jeffrey Zeldman Jeffrey Zeldman is an American entrepreneur, web designer, author, podcaster and speaker on web design. He is the co-founder of A List Apart Magazine and the Web Standards Project. He also founded the design studios Happy Cog and studio.zeldman, ...

(web standards advocate). The annual voting process began with a public nominations phase. In 2015 alone, over 1,000 nominee considerations were submitted. These were whittled down to ten nominees per category by the award's judging body. Next, a public voting phase occurred to allow for community impact to play a role in each project's consideration. Finally, the judges weighed in to determine the winners of each category. Awards were given out live at the year-end ceremony in London.

Conference

net launched its Generate Conference in 2014. The event consisted of a single-track, two-day series of speeches and workshops presented by prominent individuals in the web design industry. The inaugural conference took place in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, with

Shopify Shopify Inc., stylized as ''shopify'', headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, operates an e-commerce platform for retail point-of-sale systems that offers payments, marketing, shipping, inventory management, transaction management, and customer eng ...

and

Badoo Badoo is an online dating-focused and social networking application. Founded by Andrey Andreev in 2006, Badoo originally launched as a web product. It has headquarters in London. In 2012, the app was launched in the United States and later beca ...

acting as featured sponsors. The 2015 conference took place in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, with

Media Temple Media Temple was a website hosting and cloud hosting provider, which focused on web designers, developers and creative agencies. The company was founded in 1998 by Thomas Anthony, Demian Sellfors and John Carey. It was headquartered in Los Ange ...

acting as the featured sponsor. Past speakers included Dan Cederholm (of

Dribbble Dribbble is a self-promotion and social networking platform for digital designers. It serves as a design portfolio platform, jobs and recruiting site, and a platform for designers to share their work online. While Dribbble is a geographically ...

), Jake Archibald (of

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

), Remy Sharp (of Polyfill), Ethan Marcotte (of

responsive web design Responsive web design (RWD) or responsive design is an approach to web design that aims to make web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes from minimum to maximum display size to ensure usability and satisfactio ...

), and Elliot Jay Stocks (of

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

Typekit Adobe Fonts (formerly Typekit) is an online service that provides its subscribers with access to its font library, under a single licensing agreement. The fonts may be used directly on websites, or synced via Adobe Creative Cloud to applications ...

References

External links

*
The Net Awards
{{Future plc Future plc 1994 establishments in the United Kingdom 2020 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Defunct computer magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1994 Magazines disestablished in 2020

Net NET may refer to: Broadcast media United States * National Educational Television, the predecessor of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States * National Empowerment Television, a politically conservative cable TV network ...

Web awards