As you will remember from my last post, The Most Influential Blogs, I am aiming to give us less-clued-up people a head start, by naming a few people and blogs that you should know about in the online world (and so you also have a few names to drop at the next Geek Dinner). As before, no fancy criteria were used, but for this one I did do a little more work and trawled several sites and Top 10 lists to find you five people who have made and continue to make a difference online.

The Top Five People to Watch Online

These are by no means the most important or the only people to watch online, but if you are recovering from RSS avoidance like me, following these five is a great way to ease back into the game.
 

Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Image via Flicr, by Joi under CC)

1.Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin – Better known as the Google guys, the inclusion of these three should really come as no surprise. They are collectively worth over $30 billion and the fact that we don’t search online, we “Google”, pretty much says it all. These three are constantly releasing new innovative products and buying up half the Internet, so keep an eye on them. 

Michael Arrington (Image via Flickr, by Joi under CC)

2.Michael Arrington – This Stanford trained lawyer is the mastermind behind TechCrunch and has turned what was initially a blog for tracking startups, into a must-read for pretty much everyone online. Filled with regular news, updates and analysis, Arrington has the final word on most things online and is one person who you should know about and follow closely.

Jimmy Wales (Image via Flicr, by Jonan Basterra under CC)

3.Jimmy Wales – As the founder of Wikipedia, Wales has more influence on the youth of today than we realise. As the new one-stop-shop for information online, Wikipedia and its user-generated content increases in reliability each day, recently being compared to the Encyclopaedia Britannica in terms of accuracy. Considered the brain behind user-generated information and interactivity online, Wales is not stopping there. Recently launching his own search engine and with interesting SEO tactics of his own, he is one to remember in the online world.

Reid Hoffman (Image via Flickr, by Joi under CC)

4.Reid Hoffman – Better known in the Silicon Valley than he is in South Africa, Hoffman is the founder of LinkedIn – the online professional network that is connecting business people around the world. He has interests in so many online ventures, that it is hard to keep track, with links to PayPal, Ebay, Facebook, Digg and Last.fm as well as being the director of Mozilla, he is a busy guy with a name worth knowing.

Marissa Mayer (Image via Flickr, by Andrew Mager under CC)

5.Marissa Mayer – Now, you know there was no way this was going to be compiled without making mention of at least one of the incredible women working in online today. Mayer holds the esteemed title of being Google’s first female engineer and has sailed up the rankings to be in charge of each and every one of their consumer products. So from what your Google home page looks like to the ever changing search page – it's all up to her. So if you want to know what Google’s next move might be, remember her name.

In saying all that, a word of warning. Don’t necessarily trust every Top 5/Top 100 list that you find thanks to Google. Time Magazine recently published a list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World, as voted for by its readers - video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto took the top slot with Tyra Banks making the Top 10 and the Dalai Lama coming last. Need I say more?

Watch out for my last instalment in this little cheat guide to find out how some people are actually compiling lists with more than just a Google search. Imagine that.