GENEVA â€"  Former Vice President Al Gore, who is often chided by comedians and political rivals for claiming to have invented the Internet, was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame Tuesday.

Gore and 32 other Internet pioneers, innovators and global connectors were announced as part of the hall of fame's inaugural class at the Internet Society's Global INET 2012 conference in Geneva.

'I took the initiative in creating the Internet.'

- Al Gore, in 1999

Among the other inductees were "fathers of the Internet" Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf in the pioneer category; world wide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee in the innovator section; and Nancy Hafkin, who helped spread Internet use in Africa, in the global connector category.

Gore, whose actual quote in 1999 was, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet," was praised by the Internet Society as a global connector for "sponsoring legislation that funded the expansion of and greater public access to the Internet."

"Instrumental in helping to create the 'Information Superhighway,' Gore was one of the first government officials to recognize that the Internet's impact could reach beyond academia to fuel educational and economic growth as well," the group's description of Gore states.