Web standards are recommendations by the W3C — the people who created the Web — as to how web sites should be constructed. They created these standards so that the Web would work better for everyone: from visually-impaired users to 1600 x 1200 super-computer users.
Although web standards give us a better, faster Internet, not many sites use them. The Web Standards Awards aims to promote web site design using W3C standards by seeking out and highlighting the finest standards-compliant sites on the Internet. By showing you standards-compliant sites that make your jaw drop, we hope to show you that web standards aren't a constraint, they are a liberation.
Web standards don't exclude Flash. We recognize that Flash is as valid a method of creating Web content as XML is, but we also recognize that there are many other sites out there that focus exclusively on Flash web sites and are better able to award them. This site specializes in XML/HTML because that is what we want to promote.
Web standards are as much about their benefits to the user as they are to developers. Standards-compliant sites are generally more accessible and require less bandwidth than non-compliant sites. That means you get a faster Internet that everyone can browse.
If you're the owner of a web site, web standards allow developers to deploy faster and maintain easier. Coupled with lower bandwidth costs and access by more users this means less dollars invested, more dollars returned.