YouTube Awards

YouTube Awards
Awarded for	Best YouTube Videos
Presented by	YouTube.com
Country	United States
First awarded	2007/2009
Last awarded	2008(recontinued by youtuber)-present
Official website	http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07

The YouTube Awards are awards given out as formalized recognition of the best YouTube videos of the preceding year, such as favorite music or comedy genres, as voted by the YouTube community. The awards were organized in 2007 to "call out some of the most popular videos and let the users choose which ones deserve some additional recognition".^[1] The awards are the first time that videos would receive any formal recognition; previously, high-ranking videos were only recognized by dynamic lists of most-viewed videos.^[1] The winners received a trophy, which was a stand with a large glass "play" button.^[2] In addition, they received an invitation to an event to occur "later this year".^[3]

Organization

The videos to vote upon are chosen by YouTube staff, while the winners are selected by YouTubers.^[1] The Awards were first given in 2007—called the 2006 Awards—for the best videos of 2006. The awards were in seven categories: Adorable, Comedy, Commentary, Creative, Inspirational, Musician of the Year and Series.^[1] Each category then comprised 10 videos which YouTubers ranked in order of preference.^[4] For the 2007 Awards, five new categories were added: Eyewitness, Instructional, Short Film, Sports and Political; a general "Music" category replaced the "Musician of the Year" category of the previous year. In addition, each category held only six videos for which YouTubers could vote.^[5]