3/01/2004 09:49:00 PM

Google gurus join Forbes billionaire club

...with Google becoming the Internet search engine of choice among the tech savvy, company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page also saw their fortunes reach $1 billion apiece.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was the world's richest man for the 10th year running, with a personal fortune of over $46 billion, but investor Warren Buffett was catching up.

The world's mega-rich grew even richer over the past year as their stock portfolios swelled, catapulting the total number of billionaires to a record 587.

"After two years of significantly falling fortunes, we really saw an uptick for just about everyone on the list," Forbes Associate Editor Luisa Kroll told a news conference.

The total net worth of the world's billionaires added up to a staggering $1.9 trillion dollars, equal to almost one fifth of the giant U.S. economy.

...Older, married men dominated the list, which includes 53 women and 24 single people. The average billionaire's age is 64, and 27 are under 40.

New York was the home base of choice for the super-rich, with 31 of them living there. Moscow came in second with 23, followed by Hong Kong with 16 and Paris with 10.

The list saw the addition of 64 billionaires this year and even included a wanted man, a suspected arms trader and three jailbirds.

"Not everyone on this list is a paragon of virtue," said Steve Forbes, CEO of publishing company Forbes.