Walter Gross is Chief Executive Officer of The Technomax Group, an on-line company focused on helping small business owners integrate their corporate identity with the Internet and the World Wide Web. But you may know Wally better as the creator and guardian of the prestigious and world-renowned Surfers Choice Internet Awards, a long-standing and top-rated bastion of the search for Web excellence.

From his offices in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Wally oversees a number of successful Internet properties. In addition to Technomax and Surfers Choice, he also hosts the SC Portal, a relevance engine designed to provide quality presence services to Best of the Web Sites. We've admired Wally's devotion to Internet excellence for a number of years and thought you would like to learn more about him. If you don't mind hearing from a 53 year old guy that still leaves warm milk and oatmeal cookies for Santa, please stick around. This interview was conducted in early March 2000.

[Internet Brothers] Wally welcome. We're delighted to have you join us. Surfers Choice Internet Awards is one of the originals, having been around since 1995. Would you take our readers through its history and evolution?

[Wally Gross] Sure, but how about some milk and cookies first! My first on-line experience came with Compuserve way back in 1992. At US$3.50 an hour, believe me when I tell you that one carefully monitored one's surfing time. Of course there wasn't that much to see, other than mountains of shareware, but I had the feeling this thing just might have an influence on the way we communicate.

It wasn't too long thereafter that Compuserve came along with this whole new deal — or at least they introduced us to it — called the World Wide Web. Unimaginable stuff; graphics and information all made visible via this new medium with a few simple tags called HTML and a few protocols that made it all possible. Now for our $2.95 an hour (a welcome price drop) we were given 2 MB of server space to post our thoughts on-line for the world to see. All you needed was a copy of Mosaic and you could browse forever — and I did. Monthly bills of $200 plus were pretty much the norm. Heck that's about what I make a week now.

So in 1993 I had my first Web site on-line — a downright pioneer folks! The one-and-only Mississauga Realtor with a Home Page. Smoking guns. My home town's first Geek Realtor.

Needless to say there wasn't a wide spectrum of marketing available at that time in comparison to what's out there now. If my memory serves me well, I recall Yahoo! (some said, when they go public buy in as soon as you can. Did I? Nope!!!!!!!!!!), Postmaster had about 50 places to submit a site and there were a few award sites. The most illustrious of the latter was the Top 5% award.

I lost track of the number of times I submitted for the Top 5% — never won it though. I guess they must have been tired of hearing from me, a splendid touch of irony, I must say. Naturally I was a neophyte and in spite of my best efforts, my Web site was average at best. Not winning that award turned out to be the catalyst that turned into Surfers Choice awards. Heck, I said: "If I can't win one, I'll give 'em out".

To the best of my feeble recollection, it was early on in 1995 when I was watching the People's Choice Awards, the idea of Surfers Choice Internet Award was born. Just about a week or two later I had the site on-line as a sub-directory of my ISP, Trigger Internet Solutions, a small service oriented local provider.

It didn't take long for 100 plus award requests to start coming in on a daily basis. It was more a function of the lack of supply of similar sites and a high demand for the service, than it was a reflection of the site itself. So, it all started as a fun hobby really. However, this site has been the true teacher of what I have come to know about the Net and the Web.

[IB] During your nearly five year run, thousands of Web award programs have come and gone. What do you think has given Surfers Choice its staying power and stamina?

[WG] If by staying power and stamina you mean longevity, then I would list these four factors: commitment, communication, change and sacrifice.

Surfers Choice really started as a hobby site — it was just something I wanted to do for the experience and the fun. Thousands, if not millions, of sites started just for these identical reasons and motivations.

One individual attempting to review 100+ applications a day is more than a formidable task — it borders on some form of outright insanity. Nevertheless, I made the sacrifices in terms of time to get the work done. Many long nights spent for no other reason than living up to my commitments to these people who took the time to apply. My simple innate characteristic to never be a quitter is a prime factor for any success I have enjoyed in life and in business. People appreciate that I believe, and it has a way of being noticed even if one is as humble as can be.

After a period of maybe 10 months or so of doing this, I soon realized that one cannot please all (at least not without developing serious anxiety problems), and I embarked upon a journey of change. As any Webmaster who runs an award site, or a site that does reviews knows, submitters don't always use their reading skills. This results in volumes of unqualified submissions and hours upon hours of wasted time. Change was imminent and necessary. It is never easy to implement tough rules, but making them in a scenario as vast as the Web is sometimes a choice that is without alternatives.

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"I had the feeling this thing just might have an influence on the way we communicate."

"...this site has been the true teacher of what I have come to know about the Net and the Web."

"If by staying power and stamina you mean longevity, then I would list these four factors: commitment, communication, change and sacrifice."