Internet pioneer Denis Jennings, who was involved in some of the key decisions that led to the creation of the internet as we know it, was last night recognised as the 2007 Internet Hero at the eleventh annual Eircom Golden Spiders Awards, writes John Collins.

While at the National Services Foundations in the US in the 1980s, Jennings was responsible for some key decisions such as the adoption of the TCP/IP standard and the creation of an internet backbone, which had a fundamental impact on how the internet subsequently developed.

More recently he was a founder of the IE Domain Registry in 1992, co-founded venture capital firm 4th Level Ventures, and this year was appointed to the board the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) which oversees the administration of internet addresses. Cork food company Cully & Sully, which makes soups and pies, scooped two awards: Best Fast Moving Consumer Goods website and the coveted Grand Prix Award.

"It is fantastic to see a young brand creating such an individual presence for themselves in one of the most cluttered categories in the retail sector," read the judges' citation. "Technically it ticks a number of boxes, including feedback forums, FAQs, news, video demonstrations, good design, RSS feeds, moving graphical images, and full contact details."

Food sites fared well at the awards - the User Generated Content Award went to ifoods.tv while safefood.eu received Best Interactive Marketing Campaign. Best New Indigenous Website went to menupages.ie.

The winner of the jenerate.ie Best Blog award was headrambles.com.

The awards ceremony was held in Dublin last night with over 700 people in attendance.