National Geographic, Stephen Colbert Among 2008 Webby Awards Winners

“Respected… Trustworthy… Smooth. There’s only one word to describe it: Trustigious.” Stephen Colbert will undoubtedly be making an extra fist-pumping self congratulatory jog around the studio on the set of his Comedy Central show tonight after winning Webby Person of the Year. From The Huffington Post:

As host of cable television’s “The Colbert Report,” Colbert has managed to persuade fans to inject his version of reality into the user-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia while getting Web sites to add enough references to him that a Google search for “greatest living American” at one point brought his Colbert Nation Web site to the top.

In naming him Webby Person of the Year, judges recognized his online fan base and credited him with raising more than $250,000 online for an education charity.

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Colbert spoke of how instantly he gets feedback from his audience online:

“The Web is essentially improvisational. … The Internet is the shortest, hardest wall against which your voice will echo back,” Colbert said. “It’s a big place, but, boy, you get an echo back really fast.”

National Geographic Online won the Magazine and People’s Choice categories.

Other winners included Stephen Gondry for encouraging people to remake their favorite films in honor of his movie ‘Be Kind Rewind’, will.i.am for his ‘Yes We Can’ video supporting presidential candidate Barack Obama and The Onion for all around awesomeness.

Link [Huffington Post] + [Webby Awards]

Photo credit: AP Photo/Jason DeCrow