Success on the web is determined by presence—presence that is immediate, immersive and seductive. The line between what works online and what doesn’t is measured in seconds. Print, by comparison, is a more contemplative medium—next to the average web transaction, even the pace of newsstand browsing is glacial. Which makes it all the more worth considering that in this issue, our 2007 Best of Web Annual, we get inside 78 of today’s most compelling online experiences—in print.

There are, admittedly, limitations in what we can portray in hard copy from these powerful sites. Approximating the experience of the web is a challenge, especially when it comes to motion graphics, video and animation—which happen to be the hottest areas in the latest internet age.

So why we do we bother? The answer is that when it comes to telling stories, there’s nothing like print—and telling the stories of what makes this year’s winning sites so special, in the words of their creators, is what we do in this Best of Web annual. The environment of print allows us to slow the pace and consider what—from a design perspective—separates successful sites from also-rans.

It also gets straight into what STEP is about as a design publication. Our mission is to show the world of design from the inside out—to go beyond the who and how and explore the why. In our Best of Web coverage, which begins on page 72, our correspondents delve into the purpose and intent of the winning sites’ designers—and onward, to uncover the sources of their inspiration.

A word on how the sites profiled in this issue came to be selected: The 2007 Best of Web competition is our third, and we are gratified that the response from our readers—in terms of the number of entries—is significantly beyond what we’ve experienced before. In fact, we ended up with so many noteworthy sites we decided to show them in three categories: Judges’ Selections for Best In Show, Winning Sites (those which garnered the highest number of votes) and Sites of Merit (entries deserving recognition, but which had fewer votes).

Evaluating the entries were our three 2007 Best of Web judges, each highly qualified to appraise the combination of functionality and aesthetics that makes a website worthy of praise. Hillman Curtis, Kelly Goto and Joe Pemberton—all celebrated as leaders in web communication—put in long hours researching the sites and rendering their opinions. We are extremely grateful for their efforts.

The task of visually reproducing the experience of the winning sites fell to our art director Michael Ulrich, whom I also want to recognize here. He had the sticky job of negotiating the divide between the mediums of web and print. His eye for the telling detail and skill in capturing the visual presence of these sites were essential to telling the stories of their creation.

Which again raises the issue of presence: Here at STEP, we’re addressing the issue, at least in part, by posting most of our content online at www.stepinsidedesign.com. This makes us (along with our sister publication Dynamic Graphics) pretty much alone in the world of print magazines that cover design. The decision to put our stuff on the web reflects our belief that each medium does certain things well, and that our readers are best served by having both at their disposal. Our strategy toward the web, of course, is constantly evolving, as the medium itself matures.

In the recent words of web guru, writer and designer Derek Powazek, “We’re still figuring out what the web is truly good for. After all, we’ve only had a dozen or so years to practice. But we all know what print is good for—permanence, authority and beauty. The web will not replace print any more than television replaced radio. It will, instead, change it into something better.”

That should be interesting. You can rest assured we’ll be present.