Blogger Malik among world's top 25 web celebs

New York: Blogging might be a leisure activity for many famous personalities but it has brought fame to people like India-born Om Malik who has been named as one of the global web celebrities by American magazine Forbes. Ranked at the 12th position for technology blogging on the list of “Web Celeb 25", he shares the limelight not just with fellow bloggers but also with video hosts and gadget gurus.

A chemistry graduate from St. Stephen's College in New Delhi, Malik is the brain behind the website http://gigaom.com/ and has also served as a technology journalist for various publications. "Om Malik has a long history as a tech journalist, writing for outlets including Business 2.0, Red Herring and The Wall Street Journal (he was also one of the founding staffers of Forbes.com ).

But true web celebrity status didn't come for the Indian-born writer until 2001, when he started his own technology blog, GigaOm," Forbes noted. On the other hand, twenty nine-year-old Perez Hilton alias Mario Lavandeira, who runs the website http://perezhilton.com/, is at the top of the heap. "Hollywood stars fear the wrath of Perez Hilton, a controversial gossip blogger with a poison pen... His blog is hugely popular, despite recent missteps, including erroneously reporting the death of Fidel Castro," the magazine said.

Pointing out that Malik frequently appears in the media on television as a technology expert, Forbes added that his popular website has received funding from sources including San Francisco-based venture firm True Ventures.

Meanwhile, according to 41-year-old Malik's website, he has also been a venture capitalist for a brief period. "Few months in the VC (venture capitalism) business made me realise how much I missed the world of writing and reportage, and I went to work for Red Herring where (at least I thought) I could apply my extensive knowledge and insight into the world of venture capitalism and cutting-edge technologies," Malik's website said. Interestingly, one of the web celebrities is Dan Lyons none other than the editor of Forbes itself. However, he is ranked at the 17th position in the name ‘Fake Steve Jobs'.