ATLANTA – The Web Marketing Association has recognized three Southern Company Web sites for innovation, design and use of technology. Learning Power, Southern Company’s educational site, received the Outstanding Web Site award, while Planet Power, the company’s environmental site, and Southern Company’s primary Web site both earned Standard of Excellence awards.

“Southern Company has a long standing record of community involvement. The Web offers us an opportunity to broaden our commitment. To be recognized for sites like Learning Power, where kids can learn about energy, and Planet Power, where people can learn more about Southern Company’s environmental involvement, is an honor,” said Bill Heerman, Southern Company’s Internet coordinator.

A team of independent Internet professionals judged the competition, which included more than 700 site entries from around the world. Judges included members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, corporate marketing executives, content providers and webmasters. "Winners of the 1999 WebAwards represent some of the best Web sites on the Internet today," said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association, an independent organization that evaluates and recognizes the standard of excellence on the World Wide Web.

"The WebAwards competition is becoming one of the ways the leading interactive agencies are demonstrating to clients the effectiveness of their Web development. Corporate interactive departments also find winning awards shows company management that its Internet investments are on the right track.”

Click on these links to access the award- winning sites: Learning Power, Planet Power, Southern Company.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an international energy company that operates more than 48,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity worldwide. It is the largest producer of electricity in the United States and one of the world’s largest independent power producers. Southern Company subsidiaries and their affiliates serve 12 million retail customers worldwide and millions more through the wholesale market. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric.

Through its Southern Energy Inc. subsidiary, Southern Company has operations in 12 countries on five continents and has a growing presence in North America with assets in the Northeast, the Midwest, California and Texas. Southern Company also provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services in the United States and Europe and offers Southern LINC wireless telecommunications.