Web Celebs?

Researching online identities in English class has been a new experience for me. I have learned so much about the online world. Who knew there are now people considered “Web Celebs”? Forbes magazine recently named “The Web Celeb 25”. Web Celebs are just as famous as actors, singers, and sports figures. The celebrity playing field is now even between the web and reality. The Web Celebs were chosen for their online creations or having a recognizable online fan-base. People who were famous before they hit the web were excluded from the list. A list of 110 candidates was created and judged in five subjects: web references in Google, traffic on his or her homepage, Technorati rank of the website or blog, and media mentions and clips.

The first web celeb is known to most as Lonelygirl15. She skyrocketed the success of YouTube while it created her celeb status. She recorded a popular videoblog, which was scripted and used actors. This discovery only made Jessica even more famous. Perez Hilton, number two on the list, is a celebrity blogger known as “The Queen of Mean”. He is known to snuggle up to celebrities only to rat them out on his blog the next day. He is so famous that he now has his own television show talking about recent celebrity news. At number four is a news website editor, Matt Drudge. He is the editor of The Drudge Report website, which broke news of President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky back in the day. He’s probably the only web celeb to bring down a presidency! Number nine is Robert Scoble, a tech blogger for Microsoft. He recreated Microsoft’s boring tech blog by praising other companies’ products and putting down his own company’s products, all while using a sense of humor. He even gave out his own phone number! Although he left Microsoft last summer, his own blog Scobleizer, and his video blog, ScobleShow, are hugely popular. Number 12 on the list is Wikipedia co-founder, Jimmy Wales. Only on the web could an encyclopedia nerd become famous. He is now one of the web’s most prominent names. At number 14 is Frank Warren, an online artist. He created the website postsecret.blogspot.com. Hundreds of thousands of people have gone to his site to post their secrets. Books have even been created of the secrets. But it is no secret who the success of the website goes to. I thought it was crazy that number 25 on the list was a sex educator! Violet Blue is omnipresent on the web, posting on at least four sites. She doesn’t fit in with the other 24, but she sure does show that anyone can become famous on the web!

The top 25 list really broadened my understanding of the popularity and usefulness of blogs, videos, and websites. Many people’s lives operate around the opinions of the celebs. I’ve only looked at Perez Hilton’s site, but I may have found some new websites, like the Drudge Report, that I should read on a regular basis.