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Web Celebs List: What a Stupid Idea

January 25, 2007 BY Mark Evans

I’m all for lists. In fact, I like lists because they often highlight people, companies and Web sites that are worth checking out. But Forbes’ Web Celeb 25 list, which features “biggest, brightest and most influential people’ is stupid, ill-conceived idea. I mean, Jessica Lee Rose (aka Lonelygirl15) is ranked #1. What a load of crap! Amanda Congdon is #8. What has Amanda done since leaving Rocketboom, other than getting herself mired in a very public she-said/he-said cat fight, and being Tasar-ed at CES.

There are some legitimate names on the list (Michael Arrington, Om Malik, Jason Calacanis). But what about Rupert Murdoch given his M&A activity lately, Craig Newmark, YouTube’s Chad Hurley, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg or Richard Edelman? Nice try, Forbes but you dropped the ball. For more, check out Thomas Hawk, who calls out Forbes about their photo-credit policies, and the Guardian Online, which describes the list as “pedestrian”

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  • http://www.901am.com/david_krug/ David Krug

    This list is pedestrian. I can’t believe we reported on it its so pedestrian.

  • http://www.mathewingram.com/work Mathew Ingram

    Linkbait, pure and simple. And it will probably work too.

  • http://www.markevanstech.com Mark

    I guess I fell victim to it…:)

  • Jon Lemmon

    Mark,

    I think that Forbes isn’t talking about people who are INFLUENTIAL as much as they are talking about people who are NOTICED. Celebrities aren’t necessarily the greatest influences to the media that they are a part of — but they are, to a certain extent, the face of it.

    So, when Forbes puts Lonelygirl15 as the #1 web celeb, I don’t think it’s far off. She’s the current face of pop culture in the internet medium. Just like Britney Spears used to be the face of pop culture in the pop music realm — not that she really had much to contribute, but that’s not what celebrities are for, anyway.

    That’s just my own two cents. If I seem to be missing something, by all means correct me. Thanks for providing such a great blog.

    -Jon

  • http://www.markevanstech.com Mark Evans

    I would argue that Lonelygirl and Amanda Congdon’s 15 minutes of fame (celebrity status) has nearly evaporated. Sure, they’re still part of the Web landscape but they’re nowhere near as hot or interesting as they were a few months ago.

  • RobertoSucco

    Do you think this will make my Facebook stocks rise? :) http://iam.always.online.fr/tr.php?wordid=2093