Irvine’s Web Swingers

Pete Ellis, creator of the Auto-By-Tel Inc. online car buying service, and Jeff Leibowitz, president of Engage games online gaming service, both of Irvine, are keeping pretty good company these days.

Websight magazine’s second annual listing of the 100 most influential people on the World Wide Web lists Ellis and Leibowitz right there with Microsoft Inc. guru Bill Gates and Yahoo! Web server creators David Filo and Jerry Yang.

Ellis, who was ranked No. 45, has brokered the sales of more than 650,000 cars and trucks via the Internet since launching Auto-By-Tel (https://www.autobytel.com) in 1995.

Leibowitz, No. 88, runs a company that provides a multitude of online services for computer gamers, including a batch of multiplayer games (https://www.engage.com). He is a 20-year veteran of the computer industry and has helped develop several widely used Internet services.

John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com