While there are many lists of "Top Blogs", most notably Technorati's Top 100 list and Wikio's Top 300, I thought it would be interesting to find out which Blogger powered blogs rank most highly.
So for the past few weeks I've been gathering data of the most popular Blogger powered blogs. Using Google Pagerank, Technorati Rank, Bloglines subscribers, backlinks and Alexa rank, I have analyzed and ranked hundreds of the most frequented Blogger blogs I could find.
The following includes the top 50 blogs which are powered by Blogger, including their scores and tagline to explain what each site is about.
You can find a full explanation of the scoring system and download the Excel file containing all of the sites ranked beneath this list.
#1 Post-Secret
PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.
Insights from Googlers into products, technology and the Google culture.
Widgets, hacks and original themes for Blogger.
Selected as one of Time Magazines Top 100 Design Influencers
#5 America Blog
A great nation deserves the truth...
Unofficial news and tips about Google.
#7 Hullabaloo
Political writings by the outspoken Digby.
This site is one of the favorite destinations on the web for all things weird and wonderful, updated daily.
#9 Blogger Buzz
The official blog for Blogger news, updates and Blogger culture.
#10 Decor8
Fresh finds for hip spaces.
"Fingers firmly on the pulse..." Celebrity gossip and photos from Trent Vanegas.
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google Index.
#13 Indexed
This site is a little project that makes fun of some things and sense of others. Use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math.
#14 BLDGBLOG
Architectural conjecture, urban speculation and landscape futures.
#15 Twitter Blog
The official Twitter blog, featuring news, updates and general Twitter culture.
#16 The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
"Dude, I invented the friggin iPhone. Have you heard of it?"
Random Observations for Students of Economics
#18 Calculated Risk
Finance and Economics
#19 Official Google Adsense Blog
A look inside Google Adsense.
#20 Gorilla Vs. Bear
Simply one of the best music blogs I've ever seen!
#21 Strobist
"Learn how to light..." Learning how to use off-camera flash with your dSLR to take your photos to the next level.
#22 Shakesville
"Shakesville is a feminist blog, and a feminist's blog. It is a progressive blog. It is a safe space. It is a community."
#23 Althouse
Ann Althouse: a law professor who "sometimes writes about the law".
#24 Xiaxue
"Everyone's reading it!"
#25 Dumb Little Man
Tips that will save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane.
#26 Eschaton
One of the most frequented political blogs in the world.
#27 Face Hunter
"A man out and about in london and beyond: eye candy for the style hungry."
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
# 29 The Belmont Club
"History and history in the making".
#30 Fogonazos
"Asombros diarios".
#31 Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Thoughts on the global economy, housing, gold, silver, interest rates, oil, energy, China, commodities, the dollar, Euro, Renminbi, Yen, inflation, deflation, stagflation, precious metals, emerging markets, and policy decisions that affect the global markets.
#32 Orangette
"A blog-style collection of stories, often autobiographical and always gastronomical..."
#33 Ikea Hacker
New and interesting ways to use (and reuse) your Ikea finds.
#34 Official Google Reader Blog
News, tips and tricks from the Google Reader team.
#35 The Daily Coyote
"Charlie came into my life when he was just ten days old, orphaned after both his parents were killed. He lives with me and a tomcat in a one-room log cabin in Wyoming."
#36 BibliOdyssey
Books, illustrations, science, history, visual Materia Obscura and eclectic bookart.
#37 Orcinus
"Spyhopping the right..."
#38 Guido Fawkes Blog
"Tittle tattle, gossip and rumours about Westminster's Mother of Parliments."
"Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business."
"The MP3 Blog that puts some stank in it."
#41 How About Orange
"Visual treats and hands-on projects dreamed up in an orange office."
"Politics, commentary, humour, gossip."
#43 Bitch Ph.D
"A feminist, leftist and personal blog."
#44 PoppyTalk
"A Canadian design blog collecting inspiration and promoting emerging design talent."
#45 Alexa
"Web discovery machine" (The Alexa Blog).
#46 Cabel's Blog LOL
Cabel Maxfield Sasser's personal blog.
#47 Brooklyn Tweed
Knitting complemented by beautiful photography.
"An Australian and a Canadian trying to inspire the world, one room at a time."
#49 Adverlab
"Advertising tomorrow."
#50 Baghdad Burning
"... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend..."
How the results were calculated
Each blog was given a score out of 100 using the following formulas:
- Google Pagerank: 10%, scored from 0-10 using the actual PR
- Technorati Rank: 30%, scored from 0-30 by allotting each rank to a particular score, eg: 1-100, 101-500, 501-1000 etc.
- Bloglines subscribers: 20%, scored from 0-20 by allotting the number of subscribers to a score, eg: 10000+, 5000-9999, 3000-4999, etc.
- Google Backlinks: 20%, scored from 0-20 by allotting the number of backlinks to a score, eg: 20000+, 15000-19999, 12000-14999, etc.
- Alexa rank: 20%, scored from 0-10 by allotting the Alexa rank to a score, eg: 0-25K, 25-50k, 50-100k, etc.
For those who are interested to learn more about the scoring system I have used, take a look at the full breakdown for all five factors.
In cases where blogs had the same scores, I have used the actual Technorati rank to determine which blog ranked higher.
More information about the top ranking Blogger powered sites
Please note that this list is by no means definitive! While I have striven to discover all high ranking Blogger powered sites by searching through Technorati, Wikio Blogs, Bloglines, and any other blog list I could find, I may have missed some Blogger powered sites out.
Also, the scores I have given each blog were correct at the time of writing up this article (20th May 2008). The present scores may have changed slightly, especially the Technorati ranking (which updates every few hours), so please understand that the actual ranking may have changed, especially as time goes on).
I do welcome any suggestions for how this Top 50 list could be improved, or if you could suggest any sites which I may have missed that you feel should be included in this list.
You can download the Excel spreadsheet which I have used to gather data for and score the blogs on this list (plus a few others which didn't quite make it to the top 50).
More uses for this data?
I must admit that my reason for compiling this list was not merely to rank the top 50 blogs, but also to understand why these blogs have become popular.
Over the next few weeks I'll be looking at other aspects than ranking in these popular blogs to see what other useful insights can be gleaned from this research to publish as articles here at Blogger Buster.
As always, I appreciate your input so feel free to leave your comments and opinions below.
