Did I miss somebody? Let us know who you think should be on the list: Readers Respond.
1. Tim Berners-Lee
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Tim Berners-Lee is the man behind the World Wide Web. He originated the idea of sharing information freely via hyperlinks, created HTML (the basic language behind every Web page), and came up with the idea of each Web page having a unique address, or URL.
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2. Sergey Brin and Larry Page
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Sergey Brin and Larry Page are the co-founders of the most popular search engine on the Web: Google. Originally called BackRub, Google got a humble start in 1996 and grew by gigantic leaps and bounds, expanding into Maps, Email, Images, Books, and even Web browsers.
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3. Jeff Bezos
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Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon.com, the largest shopping site on the Web today. Amazon changed the way we shop online, making it possible for people all over the world to purchase products they hadn't been able to ever before.
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4. Jimmy Wales
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Jimmy Wales is the founder of Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia of knowledge. Wikipedia can be edited or added to by anyone, and has grown at an exponential rate since its beginning in 2001.
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5. Meg Whitman
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Under the expert leadership of Meg Whitman, eBay grew from a small online auction site to the largest marketplace in the world of both new and used goods. Consumers flock to eBay to buy anything under the sun, and sellers use eBay as an easy storefront.
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6. Dave Winer
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Dave Winer is widely recognized for his work behind the implementation of RSS, a protocol that has revolutionized the way we view content on the Web.
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7. Mark Zuckerberg
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Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook,re-imagined the Web as a connected community of people, no matter where we might be located.
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8. Bram Cohen
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Bram Cohen created the peer to peer file sharing program known as BitTorrent. Millions of people all over the world use BitTorrent technology to share large files, movies, music, books, etc.
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9. Brewster Kahle
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Brewster Kahle is the founder of the Internet Archive, a digital repository and archive of the World Wide Web and the knowledge it contains. The Internet Archive aims to collate and catalog any kind of digital work and make it accessible to the public.
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10. Craig Newmark
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Craig Newmark is the founder of Craigslist, the largest online classifieds site in the world. People in every country use Craigslist to advertise items for sale, connect with people in the community, or purchase anything from puppies to real estate.
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