The Tiny Awards, celebrating the best personal, independent, non-commercial, and newest websites

11 July 2026

The resurgence of personal, independent, and non-commercial websites has been with us for several years, propelled in part by the IndieWeb/SmallWeb communities, and a heap of discontent — to say the least — with the present, excessively commercial, nature of the web.

And this revival couldn’t be more timely. When once we looked at scores of websites daily, today the attention of many people is dominated by perhaps a mere half dozen. But escaping the claustrophobic confines of these so called walled-gardens need not be a challenge.

Web directories — being listings of websites — once a staple of the early web, are also returning in abundance, and teem with links to personal, independent, and non-commercial websites. Ye Old Blogroll is but one example, and if you’re seeking the other web, is a great starting point.

Discovery by way of web directories is not the only path to a more personal, less commercial web, however. Web awards are another option. In the same way perhaps the long and short lists of literary awards, are a great way to source quality book reading suggestions.

The sample may be smaller than the offerings of web directories and good old fashioned blogrolls, but in web awards there might be more chance of finding something you can engage with.

Say web award aloud though, and the response may not be all that enthusiastic. Web awards are sometimes perceived as little more than online fraternities. Places where the usual suspects congregate, to take part in an annual round of mutual backslapping.

Money and influence pave the way to the winner’s podium. These are not arenas where personal, independent, and non-commercial websites, are welcome.

Since 2023 though, the Tiny Awards have been quietly reshaping the perceptions of web awards. For one, commercial websites, and apps, are barred. That means we’re only ever going to see the real deal. In addition, and just as importantly, websites entered for the Tiny Awards cannot be more than twelve months old. You’re at no risk of running into even one of the usual suspects here.

Founded by Matt Muir, Matt Klein and Kristoffer Tjalve, who is also a co-publisher of the Internet Phone Book, the Tiny Awards celebrate the independent, quirky, and utterly unique. Something even a cursory glance at the previous three winners quickly makes apparent.

Rotating Sandwiches, the 2023 winner, by Lauren Walker, might evoke a feeling of déjà vu in people who have been, yes, surfing the web since the 1990’s, an era when personal websites were not personal websites, unless they baffled and awed.

In 2024, the sadly no longer online One Minute Park (Internet Archive link), designed by Elliot Cost, who incidentally co-publishes the Internet Phone Book, triumphed. And in 2025, Fifty Thousand Names, a memorial to the then fifty-thousand people killed in the Gaza war, by Leo Scarin, won.

These are websites we do not see often anymore. And that, says Kristoffer, is part the idea of the Tiny Awards. He hopes to see a change in “the public perception of what makes a good website.”

He cites the work of French landscape architect Gilles Clément as an analogy. Clément would sometimes incorporate weeds in his garden designs. As he sees it, “weeds are no longer a symbol of abandonment, but an expression of resilience.”

Incorporating “weeds” into website design? How’s that for re-wilding the web? Kristoffer is in favour.

“I believe a similar shift would be beneficial for the web, and I’m happy that the first three winners all represent slightly different designs compared to the traditional online awards, because maybe they are foreign compared to the public perception, but they are surely more native to the web.”

In that context, it seems apt One Minute Park won the 2024 award. For those who missed it, the site featured rolling motion footage, clips of sixty seconds duration each, of public parks across the world. Rare is the public park that is completely weed-free, whether that be intentional or otherwise.

But One Minute Park was not the only website honoured by the Tiny Awards in 2024.

One Million Checkboxes, designed by Nolen Royalty, won a special category dubbed the Multiplayer award. So called as the project allowed anyone visiting One Million Checkboxes to participate in the action. The dual awards in 2024 made me wonder if the Tiny Awards might one day expand to include other categories. Or something along the lines of, say, a lifetime achievement award.

Matt Klein said that while the organisers had given the idea thought, they like the awards as they are.

“At their core, I think, the Tiny Awards reject the notion that people need awards to feel good about their work. If you’ve made something with passion and your own hands, and put it out into the world, that’s the reward in itself.”

That’s a sentiment that resonates with me. The only real reward I often seek in my web work is to be writing here, at my website. And as Matt Muir says, encouraging the creation of new websites of a personal, independent, and non-commercial nature, is the main goal of the awards.

“I think it’s also important that we focus on new sites, to act as push-back against the (sadly all-too-prevalent) idea that the web is somehow dying; it’s not, people are building new things every day, you just need some help finding them.”

“The Tiny Awards is about celebrating the fact that the web is still growing, is still full of creativity, is still full of potential rather than looking back nostalgically at some imagined ideal of When The Web Was Perfect.”

Now in their fourth year, it’s fair to say the Tiny Awards are a fixture in the personal/independent web sphere. But what of the future? How long might the awards continue? Will they still be with us in a few years time? Or next year, for that matter.

Matt Klein’s response to the question is succinct, “It’s always been and will likely be: one year at a time.” Matt Muir doesn’t look too far ahead either, but thinks reaching five years would constitute a pleasing milestone.

Kristoffer sees no reason why the awards couldn’t continue indefinitely, as they’re relatively straightforward to organise, although this would be contingent on the ongoing support of both the Matts. Kristoffer would also like to see the awards carry on until they have a Wikipedia page.

I’m not sure exactly how serious that aspiration is, but after four years of the Tiny Awards, it seems like a page on Wikipedia can’t be too far away. That would surely be achievement unlocked. But someone tell me quickly: I’m not tempting fate in saying that, right?

Thanks to Matt Muir, Matt Klein, and Kristoffer Tjalve, for their assistance with this article.