Digi-Kings and Queens: They Rule the Net

Dec. 25, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- Things change fast on the Internet--and fame is no exception. Nearly half of the online celebrities identified in the inaugural edition of the Forbes.com Web Celeb 25 failed to place on the list in this second edition. Among the casualties: YouTube star LonelyGirl15, who held last year's top spot, but has been usurped by a controversial gossip blogger. Other new faces include gadget gurus, video hosts and a boy genius CEO.

Competition was steep for this year's list. We collected data on 200 Internet personalities, and ranked their popularity in six categories. The final list of 25 names shows how the Web has leveled the playing field--so that now, even the unlikeliest character can become a star.

Click here to see the top web celebrities at our partner site, Forbes.com.

To generate the ranking, we first defined "Web Celeb" as a person famous primarily for creating or appearing in Internet-based content, and for being highly recognizable to a Web-based audience. That definition excludes people who were significantly famous before they hit the Web--like author Arianna Huffington, billionaire Mark Cuban or journalist Michelle Malkin--and leaves us with a pool of people whose fame depends on the Internet.

Next, we created a candidate list of 200 Web celebrities--up from 110 in our first edition of the list. Each candidate was ranked in five areas: Web references as calculated by Google; traffic ranking of their home page as calculated by Alexa; Technorati rank of their primary Web site or blog; and TV/radio mentions and press clips compiled from Factiva. We gave candidates bonus points if they regularly published their own videoblog or podcast. All six categories were then totaled to produce a final score.

Our new No. 1 Web Celeb, blogger Perez Hilton, was born Mario Lavandeira, but adopted a pen name when he started in the gossip business. Hollywood stars fear the wrath of this "Queen of Mean," who has earned a rabid following thanks to his sense of humor and snarky tone.