100 Blogs We Love

How big is the blogosphere? In April the blog search engine Technorati reported that it was tracking 70 million blogs, with 120,000 new ones arriving every day. In such a huge universe, the signal-to-noise ratio is bound to be daunting, but we'll share with you the ones we've found worthy.

In compiling our list, we realized that reasonable men and women may disagree on the definition of a blog. For example, we quickly discarded the notion that a blog must be the work of an individual: Some of the best, including--and we hope you'll agree--our own Today @ PC World, are the work of many people. But we all agreed that a good blog has at least some element of voice: The people who write it express an opinion in the words they write and the images they include.

Of course, lots of the blogs we read deal with technology. But hey, we have personal lives, too. We like the recipes at Slashfood, the animation at Cartoon Brew, even the adorably over-the-top photos at Cute Overload.

Know a gem of a blog that we missed? Let us know in the comments below. We're always ready to expand our reading.

Technology News

If you have the time to follow only a few technology blogs a day, these will generally give you the most bang for your click.

Slashdot: The granddaddy of the tech news blogs, and the virtual water cooler of the geek cognoscenti. To be "slashdotted"--that is, to be noticed by CmdrTaco, ScuttleMonkey, or one of the other regulars--is in some circles the Net equivalent of above-the-fold placement on the front page of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal.

Engadget and Gizmodo: The Bobbsey Twins of the techie gadget universe. If there's a cool new phone, PDA, game console, DVR, or other device brewing, you'll hear about it first from these guys. We only wish we had their inside sources.

TechCrunch: Founder Michael Arrington worked as a lawyer to tech startups and has started a few Web entities of his own. Thanks to those contacts, he often has news of an interesting new Web service before the rest of the world does.

Ars Journals: The blog arm of the venerable geek site Ars Technica offers an intriguing mix of news, opinion, and hands-on trials.

ReadWriteWeb: This site may not have TechCrunch's buzz, but it's at least as good a source for news on the latest Web 2.0 developments.

Scobleizer: Robert Scoble was Microsoft's most prominent blogger, putting a chubby, friendly face on the software giant, until he left a year ago. He remains relentlessly upbeat and personal as he covers technology happenings.

More Tech News

Epicenter: The new-and-improved Wired News produces this worthy blog with quick hits on tech-industry developments from Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

GigaOM: Business 2.0 reporter Om Malik made news when he quit to blog full-time; now he and his team cover the Web, broadband, and more.

Valleywag: This smart, mean, newsy blog is a must-read for Silicon Valley insiders, as well as anyone who wants to know what they're up to.

Good Morning Silicon Valley: Tied to the San Jose Mercury News, this is a straight-ahead tech news blog with interesting quotes on the day's happenings sprinkled throughout.

Scripting News: Founded in 1997, RSS pioneer Dave Winer's Scripting News was one of the first blogs--and it's still a good source of crusty opinions on almost everything related to tech.

Download Squad: If you read only one blog each day for news about software and Web services, this one--a sibling of Engadget--would be a smart choice.

CNet's Technology & Politics Blog: These days, what you can do with your PC seems determined almost as much by Washington, D.C., as by Silicon Valley. CNet's politics blog fills you in on the legislative moves that will affect you.

The Philter (Light Reading): Telecommunications and broadband aren't typically go-to subjects for a belly laugh--or even a chuckle. But Light Reading's managing editor Phil Harvey manages to cover them in a way that's both funny and informative.

TechBlog: Houston Chronicle reporter Dwight Silverman's technology blog is one of the best ones associated with a newspaper.

Tech_Space: Angela Gunn, former co-host of PC World's Digital Duo, now presides over a surprisingly idiosyncratic and entertaining blog on tech and science--especially surprising considering that it lives on USA Today's site.

Pogue's Posts: New York Times reporter David Pogue's blog is frequently funny, personal, and insightful.

Robert X. Cringely: Robert Cringely, long the gossip columnist for PCW's sibling publication InfoWorld, has brought his unique act to InfoWorld.com.

Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard: Salon.com co-founder Scott Rosenberg's take on tech, politics, culture, and the intersections thereof is often unexpected, and always worth reading.

Rahul Sood: VoodooPC may now be part of HP, but its founder continues to blog about his adventures in high-performance computing.

Specialty Tech Sites

From search to TiVo, these blogs dig deep into special areas of technology.

Searchblog: Federated Media founder John Battelle's blog on Google and its rivals isn't the most frequently updated one, but it may be the most insightful.

Asa Dotzler: If you want an insider's take on Firefox, check out this blog by Mozilla evangelist Asa Dotzler.

Bruce Schneier: Security guru Schneier's blog isn't just about the latest Internet Explorer hole. He also takes on weighty societal issues about privacy and how people remain safe.

Security Fix: It's perhaps not surprising that the leading newspaper in a city obsessed with leak management would host a blog on identifying and mending tech security problems.

SunbeltBlog: Sunbelt Software president Alex Eckelberry covers the latest online attacks, of course, and he was one of the first to write about the travails of Julie Amero, the substitute teacher put on trial because of pop-up porn ads on a school computer. But he also enjoys a good laugh and manages to find more than a few.

GeekSugar: Young women in the tech world who feel overwhelmed by testosterone may enjoy this site, where being techie and being female are not mutually exclusive.

Retro Thing: If the memory of your Commodore 64 still brings a tear to your eye, you'll love this celebration of vintage technology, from PCs to wristwatches to record players.

Tivo Blog: Obsessed with your TiVo? You have a friend in Alex Raiano.

Treonauts: This essential destination for users of Treos, Treo accessories, and Treo software is the very model of a passionate, informative site on a specific product.

Webware: Webware is shorthand for "Web-based software"--and this CNet blog does a good job of tracking the fast-moving world of Net applications.

Wi-Fi Networking News: Occasional PC World contributor Glenn Fleishman has long run the single best site to go to for news and links on wireless networking.

Photo Matt: Matt Mullenweg isn't just the creator of the WordPress blogging platform--he's an entertaining blogger himself, writing about WordPress and the Web in general.

GPS Magazine: This blog is devoted to GPS, with an archive that goes back over a year.

The Giant Watchers

Some companies are so huge, they've inspired a cottage industry of blogs fixated on their every move. Here are our favorite chroniclers of the developments at Microsoft and Apple.

Microsoft Watch: eWeek's blog has suffered since Mary Jo Foley's departure, but it's still one of the places we go for news and commentary on all things Microsoft.

All About Microsoft: Nobody knows Microsoft better than veteran Redmond watcher Mary Jo Foley, who left Microsoft Watch to blog for ZDNet.

Ed Bott's Windows Expertise: Former PC World editor and prolific book author Ed Bott is indeed a Windows expert, and his take-no-prisoners style is fun to read--as long as you're not the person in his crosshairs.

AppleInsider and The Unofficial Apple Weblog: With a company as secretive as Apple, you need squads of reporters, like those at AppleInsider and The Unofficial Apple Weblog, to keep informed. Both sites blend news with rumors, speculation, and maybe even a bit of innuendo on a slow day.

Daring Fireball: John Gruber's quirky commentary can drive you a little crazy sometimes--especially if you're not as big a Mac fan as he is---but he's always worth a read.

MacUser: The seven bloggers for our sibling magazine MacWorld offer news, tips, and opinion on all the latest Apple happenings.

Corporate Blogs

A blog that comes from a corporation or one of its employees is a bit of a weird bird: You never know how much of it is truly personal and how much comes from the marketing department. But official or otherwise, the best ones reveal some of the personalities behind a giant company as well as the occasional insider nugget.

The Official Google Blog: When Google talks, the rest of the tech world listens. And this blog is where the search giant makes its biggest statements.

Matt Cutts: Google employee Matt Cutts provides an interesting take on the Web's hottest company--in part because his blog is personal.

Channel 9: This blog is the way Microsoft speaks to its huge developer community, but the site also gives the rest of us an advance peek at applications and services that may be coming down the line.

GM FastLane: General Motors' corporate blog is surprisingly feisty and fun--and even vice chairman Bob Lutz posts regularly.

Politics and Business

Want a smart (or silly or annoying, depending on your point of view) take on politics and/or business? Then you were born to read blogs.

PolicyBeta: The Center for Democracy and Technology has been monitoring public policy on tech issues for quite some time, which alone makes its blog a worthwhile read.

Instapundit.com: Instapundit is one of the most thoughtful conservative blogs, with short items that always seem to capture the day's zeitgeist.

Bloggingheads.tv: Often surprisingly funny, this videoblog lets a rotating group of political commentators (including founder Robert Wright and Kausfiles' Mickey Kaus) face off on issues of the day.

Danger Room: Don't read this one before bed: It's a look at war, weapons, and tactics that has the potential to scare you silly.

Political Punch: ABC News reporter Jake Tapper provides a behind-the-scenes look at the day's Washington news, illustrated with witty pen-and-ink drawings by some guy named Jake.

Iraq the Model: Four words: Iraq reporting by Iraqis.

Wonkette: Original Wonkette Ana Marie Cox decamped for Time magazine last year, so most of the current contributors to this blog are wonks (males) rather than wonkettes, but they've continued the tradition of nasty, funny Washington watching.

AtlanticBlog: Consistently astute political commentary by William Sjostrum, a self-described American economist living and working in Ireland.

Kausfiles: Whether Mickey Kaus was the first blogger, as he's been called, is up for debate; that he's still one of the most entertainingly contrarian observers of the political scene is beyond question.

Seth Godin: All Marketers Are Liars author Godin's thinking on marketing and business in general is often counterintuitive--and sometimes inspiring.

Lessig Blog: Anyone concerned about creative freedom in the Internet age should be reading Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig's blog.

James Fallows: It's great to see supersavvy journalist Fallows embrace blogging from his current home in China.

Daily Kos: Lots of left-wing blogs exist on the Net, but none has quite the influence of the Daily Kos.

The Huffington Post: Arianna Huffington, former Republican and former wife of California Senate candidate Michael Huffington, has created the New York Yankees of blogs, with a stable of hundreds of occasional contributors, from actor Ben Affleck to Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner.

Media Blogs

For better or worse, the media is under more scrutiny now than ever. These blogs are among the leaders of the new breed of media monitors.

BuzzMachine: Entertainment Weekly founder Jeff Jarvis is now a rabble-rousing provocateur, and a leading advocate for community-based journalism.

MediaShift: Hosted on the PBS site, Mark Glaser's blog chronicles--through both reportage and commentary--the way blogs and other electronic media are changing the entire media landscape.

PaidContent.org: Rafat Ali is the Web's expert on who's making money with online content--or at least trying to.

Romenesko: Reporters and editors turn to this site every day to learn what's going on in their own industry.

Disinformation: If you tend to believe that lots of important stories aren't being reported in the mainstream media, you'll probably like Disinformation, which since 1996 has been dedicated to ferreting them out.

Arts and Culture

Whether you make your own art or just want to read about other people who do, you'll probably like at least one blog in this group.

Cartoon Brew: Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi's hub for animation fans covers everything from vintage Disney to the latest CGI blockbusters to independent films.

Laughing Squid: San Francisco is a place where art and technology frequently merge to form something interesting and, because of the Internet, accessible. Laughing Squid documents many of those mergers.

Gawker and Defamer: What celebrity ordered a full-fat latte at Starbucks yesterday? Did a major network head just get arrested? Gawker covers the New York hypergossip scene, while Defamer scours Los Angeles.

What Would Tyler Durden Do: A mean, nasty blog is the perfect antidote to our celebrity-obsessed culture, and few are as clever as this one.

News From Me: Animation, TV, and comics writer Mark Evanier posts fast and furiously on the industries he's worked in, politics, and more.

TV Barn: You can tell that the Kansas City Star's Aaron Barnhart loves TV--but he's a sharp critic, too.

Reality Blurred: Can't survive without Survivor? Yearn for The Simple Life? You can get your fix of all aspects of reality television here.

TVgasm: This is the place to go for fantastically funny recaps of all your favorite shows.

Boing Boing: The bevy of other sites that this hugely popular blog points to don't have much in common except for one important fact: They're interesting.

Barenaked Ladies: Who can't love a band full of tech nerds? In addition to band news, you're likely to find discussions of Net neutrality, gaming consoles, digital rights management, and a whole lot of silliness.

Rain of Bastards: Mitch Clem writes several Web comics about punk music, living in Texas, and kittens. His LiveJournal also showcases the flyers he draws for music shows.

Create Digital Music and Music Thing: These two blogs, with tips, gadgets, technology previews, and bargain alerts, are music to the ears of anyone who likes to create their own tunes.

Joystiq: This site brings an Engadget-like approach to the world of video games--which is no shocker, since it comes from the same publisher.

Kotaku: Aside from Joystiq, this is one of the most important daily reads for video game fans, and it's a bit more offbeat and entertaining.

Mental Floss: This site consistently teaches us things we didn't know--and things we didn't know we needed to know.

Lifestyle and Hobbies

Need a recipe for tonight, an outfit for tomorrow, or a plan for the rest of your life? These blogs can help you find what you're looking for.

Make: Never have more things been created out of Altoids tins than at this blog connected to Make magazine. Read enough of it, and you'll be spending hours crafting things you never even knew you wanted.

Daddytypes.com: Being a dad doesn't have to mean being uncool. That's the motto at Daddytypes, which offers lots of images and opinions about everything from Rolls Royce station wagons to children's books by Graham Greene.

Lifehacker and 43 Folders: Need to get your act together? These two sites will help. Lifehacker's a bit more computer focused, while 43 Folders offers tips for organizing both your digital life and your analog one.

YumSugar: This blog covers everything about cooking and entertaining, including cooking definitions, recipes, exotic ingredients, and more.

Slashfood: What Slashdot is for geeks, Slashfood is for foodies.

FabSugar: FabSugar has all kinds of fashion news and gossip. Check out the "Love It or Hate It?" pages, where a (usually horrible) item is presented for users to vote on and make fun of.

Go Fug Yourself: Pay no attention to the, uh, dubious name. This is a site for folks who want to check out the latest in tasteless but expensive fashion.

Autoblog: Autoblog has cars, cars, and more cars, from hot rods to econoboxes.

38Pitches: Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling isn't just Hall of Fame material--he's a pretty good blogger, too.

The Map Room: This blog has great information about everything map-related on the Web, including a coffee mug with a map of the world that mimics the effect of global warming when you fill it with something hot.

Personalities

Some bloggers have so much sheer personality that it doesn't much matter what they write about on any given day.

Dynamist: Author Virginia Postrel's engaging blog is about...well, everything she's interested in, from innovative businesses to kidney donations.

Chris Pirillo: Lockergnome creator and former Tech TV host Chris Pirillo has to be one of the funniest guys in (or out) of technology.

Kottke.org: Software developer Jason Kottke has been blogging about his diverse interests since 1998; nobody does more with fewer words.

Blog Maverick: Dot-com billionaire, Dallas Mavericks owner, and HDTV entrepreneur Mark Cuban has opinions on everything from TV news to the NBA draft lottery.

Funny and Bizarre

Though humor is one of the most personal of tastes (one person's belly laugh may be another's horrified cringe), you ought to find a chuckle or two at these sites. But you might not want to read them at work.

Cute Overload: If you like to tilt your head and say "awww" a lot, this blog is for you. (Believe it or not, this photo site showed up on more PC World editors' lists than any other.)

I Can Has Cheezburger: Featuring ridiculous pictures with grammatically incorrect captions, Cheezburger scored right up there with Cute Overload among our editors.

Fake Steve Jobs: Even Real Steve Jobs recently said he's an avid reader of this bizarre and funny fantasy, whose author has managed to keep his or her identity secret.

WaiWai: Anyone who has seen Lost in Translation knows that things are a bit different in Japan. If you want to see just how different, read this blog, which has translations of reports originally from Japanese publications.