A website which explains why parts of Canada are light on gravity has won the award for the best writing on the internet.

HowStuffWorks – a Wikipedia-esque site that explains how lightsabers work, advises on grilling the perfect steak and answers questions such as 'what's a beer battery?' – beat off competition by the most austere of journals, The New Yorker, to receive the award for Best Copywriting on the web.

The award, given at last night's Webbys, dubbed the 'Oscars of the internet', was accepted by Jeff Arnold, the site's chief executive. He said that HowStuffWorks had remained true to its mission of providing "quality, comprehensive, and credible information [in an] educational and entertaining format."

Among the other winners on the internet's 'night of nights' in New York were the BBC website for Best News, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, co-founders of YouTube, for Person of the Year, and David Bowie, who received a lifetime achievement award for "setting the standard for how artists interact with their fans online".

Arguably the most competitive category, Best Practice, which recognises general innovation, was won by Flickr, the photo-sharing site, which pipped Last.fm, Facebook, and D – all of which have experienced enormous growth this year.

Blip.tv, an internet TV channel which streams shows such Unleashed – an animated comedy about the lives of animal actors in Los Angeles – won the award for Best Broadband site, beating off competition from Revver, a site which allows users to share in the revenue from videos they post.

The Webby winners were selected from nearly 8,000 entries representing 60 countries by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member panel, including Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, and Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood film producer.

Winners were allowed to say a maximum of five words on accepting their award. The BBC dedicated its remarks to Alan Johnston, its correspondent in Gaza, who has been kidnapped. "Alan, we're thinking of you," the recipient said.

Bowie, accepting his award, said: "I only get five words?", then continued: "S***, that was five. Four more there. That's three," before finishing up with: "Two," and then exiting.

The Beastie Boys used their acceptance speech to ask, "Can anyone fix my computer?". They won the award for Best Artist for a music video made up of fans' footage.

A BP-produced site that allows visitors to calculate their carbon footprint took out the prize for Best Lifestyle site, while IKEA took Best Navigation/Structure for an ambitious, 3D kitchen-modelling website, which crashed a Times computer when it tried to visit.

For those still wondering where Canada's gravity went, HowStuffWorks explains that "gravity can vary on different parts of the Earth. Although we usually think of it as a ball, the earth actually bulges at the Equator and gets flatter at the poles due to its rotation. The Earth's mass is not spread out proportionally, and it can shift position over time."

It goes on to say that there are two theories why the Hudson Bay area of Canada has less gravity than expected. First, the movement of magma under the earth's surface has dragged continental plates in the area downwards, and secondly, the weight of ice in the Hudson Bay during the last ice age created an indentation in the earth's crust. The combined effect of both is to reduce the mass of the earth in this area, and therefore to reduce gravity.

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