There is no formula to success but those who have achieved it have one or more quality from this small checklist:
- Original: and making sure people know this
- First: and making sure people know this
- Lucky: right person at the right place at the right time. The people behind Google, Facebook, Myspace, or Flickr did not know they world end up where are today.
- Hard-work: and persistence
- Doing all you can: This covers a lot of ground.
- Building a great team
- Innovative but effective management methods
- Sending out the right message: Google's "Do No Evil", for example.

The people and websites I have listed below in the web 2.0 hall of fame are those who have set trends for others to follow and have set best practices for others.

People

1. Aaron Wall: Internet Marketing expert who writes for the popular Seobook.com site.

2. Andrew Sullivan: One of the first blogging success. Started the Daily Dish in 2000 and is known for his unique political views.

3. Caterina Fake: Long with Stuart Butterfield, founded Flickr, the photo-sharing site.

4. Cory Doctorow: One of the main contributors to Boing Boing, also a science fiction novelist. Coined the term, 'whuffle', a form of social currency.

5. Clay Shirky: Writer and Teacher. An expert on New Media topics, especially how people work and how they behave in online groups. Wrote "Here comes Everybody", a book on his central ideas.

6. Chris Anderson: Editor-in-chief of Wired magazine and author of The Long Tail (theme: the blockbuster model of the 90s is over) and the forthcoming book Free. His ideas are now frequently challenged in view of recent evidence and are quite simplistic.

7. Darren Rouse: Accomplished Australian blogger and founder of ProBlogger (blogging advice), LivingRoom,DigitalPhotographyschool blog and the b5media blog network.

8. Doc Searls: Popular blogger and co-author of seminal "Cluetrain Manifesto".

9. Dave Winer: Californian best known for his work with RSS, podcasting and weblogs. Has a reputation for coming up innovations. Recent ones include - Riverofnews, Flickrfan which allows your to easily stream a Flickr feed to your HDTV. Has an independent thought style which has gotten him a sizeable blog readership. Claims to have sold $ 2 million worth of software based on his blog reputation.

10. Danny Sullivan: An authority in the Search Engine field. Also runs the popular news aggregator for SEO news, Sphinn.

11. Evan Williams: Serial web 2.0 entrepreneur. Started with Blogger.com, then Odeo.com (podcasting directory) and now Twitter.

12. Gabe Rivera: Founder of aggregator site Techmeme Founder, which is famous more for assuaging egos of big names bloggers and sites than uncovering great stories. Makes the list because the Techmeme idea of having a limited source list of sites has its merits.

13. Generation Y: The people born between 1982 and 1997. The first generation to grow up with the Internet. Three times larger than Generation X. 20% of the U.S. population.

14. Guy Kawasaki: A former Apple evangelist and VC, now using his past fame to his blogging and web 2.0 efforts. Lately, has founded the Alltop.com aggregator site, inspired by Popurls.com.

15. Joshua Schachter: Founded social bookmarking service del.icio.us, geoURL and Memepool. Sold Del.icio.us to Yahoo for $30 million. Now works at Google.

16. Jimmy Wales: The founder of the online, open-source encyclopedia Wikipedia, the web hosting service Wikia, open-source search tool Wikia Search and a board member of the Wikimedia Foundation.

17. Jason Calacanis: Founder of Silicon Alley Reporter in the 90s, Blog network Weblogs, Inc in 2004, which he sold to AOL for $25 million. Now working on Mahalo, the 'human-edited Search Engine.'

18. Jason Kottke: Pioneering NewYork Blogger who covers the liberal arts for the eponymous kottke.org blog.

19. Joshua Porter: a web designer known for social web design.

20. Jay Rosen: A professor of Journalism who is well known blogger/Twitter-user and has initiated several new media/citizen journalism projects - e.g. Newassignment, Assignment Zero (in association with Wired magazine).

21. Jeff Jarvis: Blogger at Buzzmachine, preaching the benefits of openness (and Googliness) to newsmedia and all who would listen.

22. Kathy Sierra: Blogger and programmer known for her award-winning Head First series of tech-mastering books with her partner, Bert Bates.

23. Kevin Rose: TV personality who went on to find Digg, the social news and voting site. Also runs the popular Diggnation shows. Digg made its name during the Paris Hilton controversy.

24. Lawrence Lessig: A professor at Stanford Law School, who founded the Creative Commons. A prominent advocate of Free Culture, the Free Software Movement, Lessig wrote the book "Code" on Internet law.

25. Matt Cutts: Head of Google's webspam team and blogger-in-chief about SEO topics.

26. Matt Mullenweg: Founding developer of the popular blogging software, WordPress

27. Michael Arrington: Founder of the technology blog, TechCrunch. Background: Law.

28. Nick Denton: Publisher of Gawker Media, the popular blog network. Started out in mainstream media journalism, at the Financial Times.

29. Om Malik: One of the first mainstream journalists to take to blogging. Runs the popular Gigaom.com blog and a small blog network, which also received VC funding.

30. Peter Rojas: Founding editor of the popular gadget blog Engadget.com of the Weblogsinc blog network, one of the first hugely successful blogs.

31. Pete Cashmore: CEO of Mashable.com, a list-focused blog about web 2.0 .

32. Perez Hilton: Owner of popular celebrity-focused website PerezHilton.com. Made his name during the Mel Gibson 'Jewish' incident.

33. Rafat Ali: A journalist who founded the popular paidcontent.org blog (focused on the digital content business). He followe that up with other blogs for his his small blog network. Sold the network to The Guardian for $30 million in 2008.

34. Richard MacManus: New Zealander. Runs the popular Read/WriteWeb blog.

35. Robert Scoble: Blogger who started out as Microsoft Employee blogging about the company, something like Matt Cutts does now for Google. Later, co-wrote a successful book on blogging "Naked Conversations". Is now a catch-all kind of blogger, his influence not as much as it was a couple of years ago.

36. Salam Pax: Pseudonym for Salam al-Janabi. Blogger from Iraq whose site "Where is Raed?" received notable media attention during (and after) the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Salam Pax, Baghdad Blogger. Probably was the first 'Single person reporting bureau' of the web 2.0 and post-web 2.0 era.

37. Seth Godin: Bestselling author, entrepreneur, blogger, and marketing guru. Known for the "permission marketing" idea along with "purple cow" and creating online "tribes" idea. Known for his sharp and concise writing style. Ironically, his blog does not allow comments.

38. Steve Rubel: PR guy and one of the earliest business types to take to blogging.

39. Tim O’Reilly: Founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media Inc., credited with coining the term "web 2.0" in 2004.

40. Xeni Jardin: A contributing blogger to Boing Boing group blog. Stands out with her personality and was recent in news for being in a scrap with a fellow female blogger.

41. Ze Frank: An online performance artist who runs the hugely popular Zefrank.com site.

Sites and Blogs

1. 4chan: English-language imageboard website launched on October 1, 2003, known for anonymous posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime. Behind the LOLcats internet meme.

2. 37signals: Web Developers who also run a popular blog. Teach you how to build an online brand through a single point agenda of simplicity.

3. Ars Technica: A 10-year old blog on technology bought over by media giant Conde Nast in 2008 for a figure reportedly in millions of dollars.

4. Bankaholic.com: A blog run by a single person, focused on banking products, sold for $15m to Bankrate in 2008.

5. Blogger: the pioneering web log publishing system started by Pyra Labs in 1999. Acquired by Google in 2003.

6. Boing Boing: Zine (1990) to popular Group Blog on "all things interesting".

7. Craigslist: The site that newspapers love to hate. Founded in 1995 by Craig Newmark, a precursor to the web 2.0 revolution, Craigslist is network of online communities, focusing on free classified advertisements and forums of various topics. In 2004, eBay bought a 25% stake in the privately-held company.

8. Del.icio.us: Joushua Schacter's genius creates tagging heaven. Over 5 million users.

9. Digg: Pioneering social news-cum-voting site launched in 2004, populated with young, techie male types and often faces charges of cabals and being prone to gaming by top users. Makes the list because it was a pioneer.

10. Engadget and Gizmodo: The two dominant gadget-focused blogs from the Weblogsinc and Gawker media blog networks respectively. Both of these blogs enjoy a huge fan following and have teams if writers working for them.

11. Epinions: A general consumer review site that was established in 1999. One of the first web 2.0 sites.

12. Facebook: Clean-looking social networking site, started as a copycat in 2004, benefited from fast student adoption.

13. Fark.com: Created by Drew Curtis, this social news site specializes in offbeat news and for unique tagging for news stories. Drew Curtis is known for criticizing the news approach f news organizations.

14. Flickr. Photos, only photos

15. FriendFeed: A social network aggregator created by ex-Googlers in 2008, that creates a feed of all of your activity across websites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Also associated with the "life streaming" concept.

16. Gawker Media: The successful blog network founded by Nick Denton, includes the eponymous Gawker.com media-celeb site.

17. Global Voices Online: Aggregator of blogs across the world, especially from places that need their voices to be heard - third world countries

18. Google: The company that started out as Search engine in 1998 and has now morphed into the world's largest advertising company - cum - Internet services company.

19. Hackernews: Focused version of Social News. No catch-all ugliness of Digg or Uppity-obsessed Reddit.

20. iPhone: The phone with the touchscreen interface from Apple. The latest 3G model 3G, GPS and improved battery life. A monster hit in the United States, the iPhone has failed to make it in the Asian market, in face of better-featured handsets and because of its price. Makes this list because more Americans are browsing and using the web using mobile phones than ever before.

21. Last.fm: Share musical tastes.

22. Marginal Revolution: Great, single Focus blog [economics] run by Professor Tyler Cowen

23. Myspace: Ugly social networking can be big, very big.

24. MetaFilter: Known as MeFi to its members, a community weblog founded by Matthew Haughey in 1999. Famous for having useful content. One reason: the 5 USD life-time membership fee made mandatory since 2004.

25. OhmyNews: South Korean online newspaper website with the motto "Every Citizen is a Reporter". It was founded by Oh Yeon Ho on February 22, 2000. The first Citizen Journalism site.

26. Popurls: An aggregator site started by Thomas Marban, and has probably the best use of RSS.

27. Slashdot: The social news site that predates Digg by 8 years. Founded by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda in 2007. Besides, having great content, famous for the 'Slashdot effect' phenomenon where a small site gets pageviews in huge numbers after having been linked to by a large and popular site.

28. SEOmoz: A Seattle based Search Marketing company founded by Rand Fishkin. Famous for a popular blog on SEO, for the annual web 2.0 awards, for a range of innovative SEO Tools and for the smart way they brand themselves online.

29. Slideshare: A site where users share presentations

30. Skype: Because VOIP=Skype

31. The Huffington Post: A liberal political news-sum-aggregating blog that made its name by getting celebrities to contribute and later during the U.S. Presidential elections. In its last funding round, in Nov 2008, received $25 million. Charges of republishing excess content have been raised against it.

32. The Guardian: British newspaper run by a non-profit trust, known for its reporting as well as enthusiastic adoption of internet technologies as they have been invented.

33. YouTube: The site that made online video. Bought over by Google in October 2006.

34. Technorati: Blog aggregator cum Blog search engine launched in 2002 by David Sifry. Also aggregates photos, videos and other forms of user-generated content. Famous for its annual "State of the Blogosphere" survey reports.

35. Twitter: The Breakout micro-blogging service from Evan Wlliams, the co-founder of blogger.com, that allows users to post short messages called tweets (140 characters per tweet) to a stream that can be viewed by the user's friends and contacts. First came to prominence during the popular SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, in 2007.

36. TechCrunch: Pioneering blog covering web 2.0 startups, founded by ex-lawyer Michael Arrington in 2005. Often faces charges of conflict of interest.

37. TreeHugger: A blog on the environment and eco-friendly lifestyle, founded by Graham Hill. Sold to Discovery for $10 million.

38. Valleywag: A now defunct blog from the Gawker Media network, launched in 2006 and focused on gossip in the tech scene in the Silicon Valley. Although controversial for its no-holds barred coverage, the blog had some top-notch writing talent, including Owen Thomas of Business 2.0 and Nick Douglas and was known for often taken a contrarian view on the web 2.0 and new media developments.

39. Wikipedia: The free and open encyclopedia consisting of articles exclusively written by its users. Although anyone can join and edit, most of Wikiepedia articles start as stubs and most of the edits are done by a small group of users. (The 1% rule)

40. WordPress: The champ in hosted custom blogging space, backed by a dedicated community of developers.

41. YCombinator: A Venture Capital outfit in formerly based in Boston headed by Paul Graham, which adheres to the the lean and mean ethos of web 2.0, investing $15000-$25000 max. in startups.

42. Yelp: A social network website, found in 2004 that accepts user reviews about local merchants (e.g. restaurants, nightclubs, bars, retail stores), professional services, and cultural venues in their community.

43. YouTube. The thing that created the monster called online video.