15 Websites Changed the World

There are 15 websites that changed the world in terms of life styles, shopping, search, etc. in the past 15 years, Guardian writes today. These websites are summarized here:

1. Ebay
Founded by Pierre Omidyar, 1995 US
Auctions & shopping
Users 168M

2. Wikipedia
Founded by Jimmy Wales, 2001 US
Online Encyclopedia
Users 912K / day

3. Napster
Founded by Shawn Fanning, 1999 US
File sharing
Users 500K paying subscribers

4. Youtube
Founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Jarim, 2005 US
Video sharing
Users 100M / day

5. Blogger
Founded by Evan Williams, 1999 US
Weblog publishing system
Users 18.5M unique visitors

6. Friendsreunited
Founded by Steve & Julie Pankhurst, 1999 UK
School reunion
Users 15M

7. Drudgereport
Founded by Matt Drudge, 1994 US
News
Users 10M page views / day

8. Myspace
Founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, 2003 US
Social networking
Users 100M

9. Amazon
Founded by Jeff Bezos, 1994 US
Online retailer of books, CDs, and DVDs
Users over 35M

10. Slashdot
Founded by Rob Malda, 1997 US
Technology news
Users 5.5M / month

11. Salon
Founded by David Talbot, 1995 US
Online magazine
Users 3M unique visitors / month

12. Craigslist
Founded by Craig Newmark, 1995 US
Network of online urban communities
Users 4000M page views / month

13. Google
Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, 1998 US
Search engine
Users 1000M search requests / day

14. Yahoo
Founded by David Filo and Jerry Yang, 1994 US
Internet portal
Users 400M

And last, and evidently least, which I don't like, but Guardian has added to have one more UK in the list:

15. Easyjet
Founded by Stelios Haji-Loannou, 1995 UK
Budget airline
Users 30M passengers 2005

Hossein Tehrani

Maestro Hossein Tehrani was born in 1912 in Tehran. He loved the sound of percussions, so once he decided to make an instrument himself. He made a hole at the end of a clay vase and covered the bigger mouth with skin and started playing his first strokes of tonbak on it.

His father did not wish Hossein to practice music, so he was able to practice only when his father was at work. According to his interviews he started learning tonbak seriously in 1929. In 1938 he became acquainted with the late Maestro Abolhasan Saba, the multi-instrumentalist Persian best known as a violinist, and this was an important point in his life.

After the establishment of Radio Tehran in 1940, he and some other artists collaborated with the radio. He was the first to write books and scores for tonbak which made this instrument more and more popular.

He was very kind, and always well dressed and smiling although he had lost one of his eyes while he was working in a technical workshop in his youth. That’s the reason he was always wearing dark glasses. After a long indisposition, he passed away in February 1974.

Maestro Tehrani playing tonbak
Video 49 Sec. 954 Kb

Train sound with tonbak
Audio 1:50 Min. 451 Kb

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Dec 9, 1915 – Aug 3, 2006) among the most renowned opera and concert sopranos of the 20th century, died yesterday at her Austrian home at the age of 90, local media reported.

The German-born Schwarzkopf sang for a galaxy of famed conductors, including Herbert von Karajan, in a career that originated with training in Berlin during Germany's Nazi era and wound up four decades later in 1975.

Known for her charm and vivacity, Schwarzkopf appeared at the world's greatest concert halls from Covent Garden to La Scala and the Metropolitan in New York.