WebProNews

The annual Forbes 400 lists have been published, and some familiar names in the world of search and technology show up there.

There's no real surprise at the top of the Richest Americans list, where a B. Gates appears just ahead of his bridge partner, Warren Buffett. The saying "the rich get richer" applies, as Mr. Gates' worth according to Forbes stands at $51 billion.

Paul Allen, who's been away from Microsoft for quite some time, and the man who founded a computer company in his dorm room, Michael Dell, rate just behind the top two. And everyone's favorite database developer, Larry Ellison, will have to be content with his number five placement.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each have about $11 billion in pizza money, while Google CEO Eric Schmidt has parleyed his gig atop the Googleplex into $4 billion in net worth. They all trail their biggest fan in Redmond, Steve Ballmer and his $14 billion.

A pair of cinema heroes for the geek crowd, George Lucas and Steve Jobs, made the list a little behind Mr. Schmidt. Meanwhile, at Yahoo, its founders David Filo and Jerry Yang still have places in the top 100. Rumors of online advertising being a potentially lucrative field seem to be accurate.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.