AsiaOne, the Singapore Press Holdings' Internet portal, clinched three of the seven top online awards won by the media giant at the second "Hitwise Online Performance Awards" ceremony this evening to recognise No. 1 websites with growing market share.

The winning AsiaOne websites are AsiaOne Multimedia, AsiaOne Wine, Dine and Unwind and AsiaOne Horoscopes the latter two for the second year in a row.

The triple awards for AsiaOne show that its major revamp last September to make the website more user-friendly and appealing is paying off. The new-look online news and lifestyle portal (www.asiaone.com) now offers interactive features like polls and forums to give readers more avenues to air their views and contribute content. It has also beefed up its content and added new sections like Business, Just Woman and Multimedia, as well as stepped up its production of vodcasts and photo galleries.

The other winning websites from the SPH stable are: Zaobao.com, Hardware Zone and Hardware Zone forum which won two awards - one in the Computers and Internet - Hardware category and the other in the Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat category.

Hardware Zone, a homegrown IT magazine and website publisher, was acquired by SPH in September last year for $7.1 million.

ZaoBao.com, the Internet edition of SPH's flagship Chinese daily, won in the News & Media - Print category. Zaobao.com has more than four million page views every day, with 85 per cent of them from China, making it one of the most highly-accessed Chinese news sites in the region.

Said SPH's chief executive officer, Mr Alan Chan: "The awards encourage us to keep improving our news content and online initiatives. Our plethora of products caters to the various needs of our readers and we will continue to engage them with new innovations."

The annual Hitwise Online Performance Awards celebrate the #1 websites across more than 130 countries for 2006 and recognise excellence in online performance through public popularity.

From left:Jereme Wong, (Media Director, Hardware Zone)Lim Chuan Jer, (Product Manager, Hardware Zone)Geraldine Teo, (Content Producer, AsiaOne)Michelle Koh, (Assistant Media Manager, Hardware Zone)Adrian Tay, (Executive Content Producer, AsiaOne)

Hitwise, an online measurement company which monitors over 800,000 websites worldwide and uses authenticated statistics to determine the most popular websites each year, tracks the annonymous online usage and search behaviour of more than 1.47 million Singaporean Internet users - the largest online sample of its kind.

Hitwise General Manager for Asia Pacific Sales, Mr Michael Walmsley, said: "The online success of the winning SPH online sites during 2006 is a fantastic achievement. Being one of the most popular websites visited by Singapore Internet users demonstrates the strength of SPH's online marketing success."

On AsiaOne's triple awards, its editor Ms Irene Ngoo said: "We are delighted to add another feather in our cap, especially since the additonal award has been clinched by our fledgling multimedia team which began video production only towards the end of May last year.

"Despite being the new kid on the block, our lean and mean multimedia crew, leveraging on the support from the rest of the AsiaOne team, has been producing newsy, engaging, top-quality news and lifestyle videos which appeal to readers and advertisers.

"We are also very pleased that the AsiaOne Wine & Dine has again clinched the No. 1 spot for the second year running. It is a validation of the website's appeal and solid content.

"We want to thank all our AsiaOne readers for their continuing interest and support through the years. It is very gratifying to win three awards this year and this will inspire us to further improve our various sites and services and give our readers what they really want."

The three awards which AsiaOne won were for the lifestyle categories.

• AsiaOne Multimedia site produces five video clips a week, featuring key news events but focusing on lifestyle issues such as food (reviews and recipes), the arts, leisure, motoring as well as business, digital and fashion topics. It also features photo galleries of events and places and the people in them.

• Its Wine, Dine and Unwind vertical is a comprehensive food and drinks guide which earned it top spot in the Food & Beverage - Lifestyle & Reference category of the competiition. This section was expanded last year to include entertainment, the arts and leisure.

• AsiaOne Horoscopes provides daily readings of the Chinese Zodiac and Sun Sign horoscopes. It won in the Lifestyle - New Age category.

Both Wine Dine and Unwind, and Horoscopes, have won top awards for two straight years.

As part of the revamp, AsiaOne Wine & Dine was expanded to include a new segment called Unwind, covering the arts, entertainment, books, leisure and gardening.

This comprehensive section, one of AsiaOne's most popular, has impressed some AsiaOne readers for its appeal and solid content. With more than 300 reviews of restaurants, cafes and even hawker centres, readers are able to search for restaurants in their area, or by cuisine type. And in the works ? searches by price category.

Says Mr C Koh, an MBA student: "I like the extensive variety and scope of the different articles there. Definitely one of the best compared to other sites that I've been to."

Engineer Ms S L Goh adds: "It is a convenient place to find information on almost anything related to leisure."