In last place at #207, with a dismal average rating of 17 out of 100, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has amassed a significant number of votes (40,214 to be exact) as of this writing.
Most others placed so low can barely muster 5,000 votes. Even Eliot Spitzer currently ranks higher than Jobs (#202, 22 rating on 5,136 votes).
Bill Gates, in contrast, is currently in 4th place, with an average rating of 62 on 11,066 votes. In an even worse example of ballot-stuffing, and just like last year, Korean pop star “RAIN” is in first place with a 67 rating on over 750,000 votes!
What this all says to us is that Jobs is currently being voted down, Gates being voted up via campaigns by some Anti-Apple, Pro-Microsoft website(s), and RAIN fans make Apple fans look apathetic (which isn’t easy).
Well, turnabout is FairPlay™. 
We can vote, too! Just slide the slider to the appropriate rating, 1 for least influential, 100 for most influential, and click the “submit” button.
We’ve assembled these handy direct links to the voting pages for the following nominees:
• Steve Jobs
• Bill Gates
• Steve Ballmer (Rank: 83, Avg. Rating 42, Votes: 7,411)
• Mikey Dell (Rank: 122, Avg. Rating 38, Votes: 4,180)
The full list of nominees is here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Leveldown” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Juvenile? Maybe. Beaucoup hits for TIME? Sure. Necessary? Most definitely! You know what to do.
[UPDATE: 3:53pm EDT: Added Monkey Boy to links list. Thanks, Derek.]
[UPDATE: 4:32pm EDT: Added Mikey Dell to links list. Thanks, Derek.]
Already…
Bill Gates currently down to 60.
Steve Jobs up to 19.
Gates down to 59.
Jobs still at 19…
Jobs up to 20 now. Gates at 59.
In the immortal words of Simpsons anchorman Kent Brockman: “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: democracy just doesn’t work”…
“Even Eliot Spitzer currently ranks higher than Jobs (#202, 22 rating on 5,136 votes).”
That’s because he has been actively recruiting the hooker vote.
even FakeSteve has taken notice
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/04/someone-is-out-to-get-me.html
p.s. you would think that this Rain guy leading the poll for the 2nd year would make someone wonder about how useful this is? (too many script-kiddies over there in Korea with crazy-high-speed internet…)
Steve Jobs is now at 21. The good news is that it looks like that everyone in Redmond has already voted him down and gates, up, so as the votes equal out, we’ll see who lands where.
I also think that Time’s Pro’s and Con’s are kind of misleading. They have half a sentence in Pro’s then a paragraph under the Con’s.
This is EXACTLY why polls are worthless…..ha pretty funny….Vote early and OFTEN….ha
Jobs up to 21, Gates down to 58…
Hey Kids!
Forget ye not Steve Ballmer!
Currently #82. Do the monkey dance and slide on over to the left…
Wouldn’t a quick AppleScript program make this easier?
Too bad you can’t give Gates and Ballmer a zero vote. Jobs aside, Gates ranking higher than the Dalai Lama is proof enough that evil is rampant and running amok on the Intarweb.
Pure subjective hogwash.
People seem to be confusing Influential with Popular or visible in the media.
Dell and Gates above Jobs???
How else do we explain the high rankings of our ever annoying socialists like Chaves, Castro, and (hairy) Pelosi?
Sad.
Steve Ballmer is even on this list?
You are kidding me?
Gates down to 57, Jobs still at 21.
(Uncle Fester at 83)
Steve is up to 22. And I only had to vote 512 times.
Ahem:
Michael Dell: Currently at #122.
Paul Allen: Currently at #38
BTW: I note that Rain, ‘Korean pop sensation’, was ‘last year’s landslide winner of this poll.’ I expect the guy is good with so many fans. And I enjoy Asian pop. But ‘most influencial person in the world?
To me that defines this poll as bizarro stoopid.
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Stupid Koreans have nothing better to do than vote for their New Kid on the Block between frags @ their LAN “parties”. kinda funny actually. like to see this RAIN clown on the cover of TIME! fat f*&#xki;ng chance!
In more important news, the virtual chick in the Rappelz MMORPG ad banner is disturbingly hot.
This is just sad – reading the comments on the site it is obvious there is stuffing going on – which makes the whole thing worthless. The Hillary comments crack me up, tho – they have almost made her into Mother Teresa. Good Lord! The epitome of evil getting a lovefest. And why Ballmer is even included it beyond me. There was one comment in there for Ryan Seacrest – a worthless poll and a waste of time. And there in the intrawebs in a nutshell
“which makes the whole thing worthless”
Web surveys usually are pointless.
Unless it’s privately and scientifically conducted like Harris Interactive, it’s hit whoring at its finest or worst depending upon your perspective.
Let’s take a vote.
If you want to save one step in your ballot stuffing, there is a pixel in the interface that allows you to hit ‘100’ AND ‘Submit’ at the same time.
So here is the procedure (this is so idiotic!):
1) Go to the Jobs page
2) Move your cursor over to the magic pixel and don’t touch your trackpad/mouse/whatever again until your stuffing behavior has been completed.
3) Left-click the magic pixel.
4) Command-r to reload the page.
5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you get carpal tunnel syndrome.
I haven’t seen such a poorly coded poll since the pioneering days of the net. Nostalgia wafts gently in the breeze…
Did you read the CON: section for Steve Jobs? I thought Time liked him and what exactly is the iPhone fatigue? Haven’t seen that anywhere around here…. Here is the section:
PRO: With its raved-about interface and unmatched hipster cred, the iPhone changed everything.
CON: The “gPhone” (not an individual phone, but a Google-designed open-source operating system) may change everything again. What’s more, iPhone fatigue set in almost simultaneously with iPhone hype, and complaints about service remain. AppleTV — a sort of iTunes/TiVo superbox for television — has yet to find a toehold. And will people keep updating their expensive Apple electronics in a recession?
I’m surprised Zefram Cochrane isn’t on the list.
Oops. Too soon?
Given that Rain is #1, I have to think that the Koreans, who dislike Apple and its iPod are pushing Steve down. They are more likely spamming the vote than MS-acolytes.