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10 Best Designed Blogs

elliottback.com — The particular platform (WP, Moveable Type, Typepad, Handcoded) doesn ’t matter. It’s what you do with it that counts. This isn’t about prettiest blog, or the best written blog. This is a list of the most groundbreaking, cutting edge blogs out there. You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty.

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  • Mostafa, on 10/12/2007, -4/+31I like this blog too
    http://veerle.duoh.com/index.php
  • alienvenom, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Not exactly a blog, but http://www.k10k.net/ is one of my favorites.
  • SilentBobSC, on 10/12/2007, -20/+4Must be a REALLY slow digg day for this lame list to hit the front page.

    Design 101 - Design for the majority browser 1st and up-and-coming browsers 2nd, totally broken in IE but fine in FF. Guess it's just a blogger thing where they don't deal with paying customers who have a larger audience with a more diverse browser base.
    • docholoday, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14I'll agree that this isn't exactly front page worthy, but I can't agree with your standards for web design. FF is largely gaining in market share and IE has been known for years as a very non-standards compliant browser. Sure, designing for FF or being "too cool for IE" is the trendy thing to do, but, as a web designer myself, I refuse to design exclusively for IE anymore. It's not my first thought, or my second. I design a page, test it in FF, tweak it and when it's perfect to MY browser, then I might open up IE to see what it looks like. If it's close, I leave it be. I used to design for it, but I also used to design for 800x600.
    • BeachSide, on 10/12/2007, -14/+4"I refuse to design exclusively for IE anymore. It's not my first thought, or my second. I design a page, test it in FF, tweak it and when it's perfect to MY browser, then I might open up IE to see what it looks like. If it's close, I leave it be. I used to design for it, but I also used to design for 800x600."

      Well when you start paying for the websites that people/companies hire other web developers for then you will have a voice on what YOU want it to look like. Until then it is all about what the client wants and unfortunatly most clients are not up to date on the latest technologies nor do they even care. All they care about is that it works... in IE!!!

      You might say "Well it works well enough in my browser at 1024x768" yeah and you obviously haven't been to a client and when they open their IE browser that is 640x480 or 800x600 and your 1024x768 layout doesn't fit or is off a bit...

      That kind of thinking doesn't fly in the real world pal
    • computerdude33, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Even my friends with old computers & monitors (4 years) run in 1024x768. If you have to, have an option to turn off styling, mainly for 800x600 or less.
    • danatks, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Well, my res is higher than 1024x768, but I like to have my browser window unmaximised (is that even a word?) and I set the width to approximately 800px.

      Web pages set for a width of 1024px don't get read or bookmarked in my browser.
  • Agraek, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2***** already
  • UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -18/+1Betta Don't! http://www.bettadont.com/
  • thomashallock, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty.

    That was probably the best description I've ever read for a link on Digg.
    • smuirhead, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0I was gonna say the same thing. digg for that line alone :)

      Too bad I can't actually view the site :(
    • lagerbottom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Really? Because that line turned my stomach and made me want to rip my eyes out.
  • KidVicious, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5I still don't really get the popularity of blogs. My life is boring enough as it is, I don't see a reason to read about someone else's. If it's somebody famous that's one thing, but I don't think I'll ever understand why people will visit a site just to read about what Joe Schmo in ***** Idaho (to use Alex's phrase) ate for lunch today.
    • CorpT, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Why does everyone who hates blogs thinks that's what they're all about? There are people who write political blogs, technology blogs, Amazing Race blogs, etc... There is a blog for everything. And if there isn't, write one. Some are good, some suck. They aren't all about what someone had for breakfast that morning. If that's what you think, you're either being obtuse or you haven't heard about a crazy web page called google.com yet.
    • KidVicious, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Yeah, I understand that there are a lot of different blogs, but why should I care that some random guy thinks about the current political candidates, or that John C. Dvorak thinks Apple will switch to Windows? I know that there are "blogs" like endgaget that showcase cool new technology, but probably 99% of blogs out there are people just saying their opinions, which isn't worth spending my time reading.
    • Konquest, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"probably 99% of blogs out there are people just saying their opinions, which isn't worth spending my time reading"

      That's pretty much the same signal to noise ratio than the rest of the internet. I agree with you than some personal blogs are quite lame, but some provide some meaningful information and should be considered like any other source of info.
    • Razerious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I mostly read technology (programming) blogs, and I have yet to see any of those blogs mention what they eat for lunch. Perhaps you should actually read some blogs before dismissing them. And yes, there are a lot of junk-blogs out there, but there are plenty of good blogs too. You just gotta find them. Good luck.

      "Yeah, I understand that there are a lot of different blogs, but why should I care that some random guy thinks about the current political candidates"

      Well, yeah, don't read random blogs if you don't like them. There are plenty of "important" people that have good blogs too.
    • CorpT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Some jackass spouting a random opinion? Not worth my time. Some jackass writing a recap of 24? If I missed last night's episode I'll definitly be reading. Some jackass writing a well-thought out, argument against/for a candidate? Sure, I'll read that around election time.

      And some are just good, interesting reads. Take Michael Totten for example. The guy travelled to Lebanon to write socio-political stories from Beruit. Then he travelled into Kurdish Iraq. That's just cool. It is almost assured I will never travel to Lebanon. But I can read about his experiences there. Not as good, but damned interesting.

      There are good blogs out there and if want to lump the good ones in with the bad, be my guest but you're missing out on some interesting reads by having some grudge against blogs.
    • webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Actually, I use my blogs as a record of what I've done recently - in one case it's a reminder of how I've customised, configured, and the extra software I apt-getted when I installed SuSE 10, then Ubuntu 5.10->dist-upgrade 6.06, so when I have to do it again, as I will inevitably break something, I can look back and remind myself. Why blog it, and not just store it locally? No worries about losing it when I reformat, and it might just help someone else.

      If anyone other than myself reads my blogs (which I doubt) then it's a bonus. I don't obsess on it - after all, how many people would want to know that a month ago in Dapper network-manager didn't support WPA, so I had to add in an extra repo to get an updated version?
    • kaniz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Blogs cover a wide range of topics. Yeah, you have the 'Dear Diary' type blogs where people go over who they like, dislike, what their friends said/etc - and generally speaking I dont like those blogs.

      And hell - most people dont like those blogs unless they are a blog by a friend of theirs.

      However, there are blogs on : Music, Design, Photoblogs, Technology, News blogs, Technology blogs

      Hell, you could even argue that Digg is a bit of a 'collective' blog where people submit stories on things that interest them, make a comment in the story description, then there are a bunch of people who either digg/dont dig it and talk about it - very blog like if you ask me, even if just of a 'spin' on it.

      Right now, I am working on two blogs (I wont post links, and they are still works in progress)

      Blog #1 - Creative Writing blog, where I post my short stories/etc, its more just a source of creative outlet and essays/poems/short stories/whatever.

      Blog #2 - A Minimal Techno blog, I'm doing a 'make my own software' for it just because. However, the blog will be focused on news in the Minimal Techno world, have info on upcomming parties, festivals, info on netlables, new releases, links to DJ sets, tracks that I like at the moment - then information about the album/CD/artists that the track is from, and news-related information to that scene.

      If you think every blog out there is just people bitching about the ***** with 10 items in the 1-8 item express line, then thats your loss.

  • ecb29, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2There seems to be some trouble with hosting ... I've contacted dreamhost and it should be back soon (?)
  • dizzledaking, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5"You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty."

    Fruitiest. Description. Ever.
  • jeff1943, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8http://orderedlist.com is well designed.
    • jeffjonez, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0well designed maybe, but i can't tell what it is without thinking, so >something< is wrong.
    • orderedlist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, you could just think to read the 'About' page... :)
  • someguy9, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2dugg to death
    page doesnt work
  • rhettnyedotorg, on 10/12/2007, -8/+2http://comoblog.serialmonkey.com/comoblog/ this ones what i use, post by email with attachments. sweetness.
  • DSoM, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2digged.
    wow, verlee is absolutely stunning! (otherwise the others on that comment page i didn't like)
    stuipid me that i've thought that my blog ( http://www.aicube.net/blog/ ) was fine, or at least very good for a "blogger blog"..!
    indeed, main link is down (diggeffect) i will try later, to find some idea to steal :D

    edit : someone would appreciate a "mirrordot like" site :)
  • viciousnet, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2they've been knocked out.. hopefully will be back up later
  • blobzorz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The ninth one looks like those sites you get when you type a URL wrong.
  • SIDSI, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Blogs, making ordinary people feel important.
    • CharlesDarwin, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Blogs are like assholes. Would you post a link to your ***** on digg?
  • ic3box, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0hey you're missing mine ;)

  • altjeringa, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Impressive designs, although it is becomming very apperant that the people who write blogging software have absolutely no concern for how well their software performs, especially Word Press. Why is the homepage of a blog making a sql query to get data? CACHE CACHE CACHE!!!!! it's so so so so easy.
  • Hypertime, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Kevin should hire each of these dudes to create a Digg "theme", and then allow us to view Digg in any one of the 10 themes of our choosing.
  • kalphegor, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3OMG the #9 Jonathan Snook has Microsoft FrontPage on his resume

    http://www.snook.ca/jonathan/resume/
    • Hypertime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Read: "I can untangle the spaghetti code that the hack of a web developer created for your site in FrontPage. For an additional fee, I can have him whacked."
    • Anthony, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, a lot of people do. It was quite a popular web design medium.
  • reversial, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Down, here's a coral:
    http://elliottback.com.nyud.net:8090/wp/archives/2006/04/16/top-ten-best-designed-blogs/
  • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1*****
  • fingiecrookie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1From the article:

    "When you’re looking for the next leader in web 2.0 blog design, Hicks starts to look a little too plain, Santa Maria wicked-worn out, and Zeldman like something you might print out, not read online. Where are the leaders of modern blog design?"

    And why are we looking for the next leader in web 2.0 blog design again?

    I'm sorry, but leaving Hicks, Santa Maria or even Zeldman off of a "Top 10 Best Designed Blogs" list, just because they refuse to hop onto the "web 2.0" bandwagon, is just plain silly. Plus, how come a site like Emotions is on that list, when it's clearly a portfolio site, not a blog? Sure, it's pretty as hell, but I don't consider "It’s not a blog, but it easily could be" to be a valid argument to favor this over blogs like Veerle's, Cameron Moll's, Shaun Inman's or Khoi Vinh’s, to name a few blogs I would've liked to see on that list.
  • h198x, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2No digg. Again, another post with 'Best' in the title.

    Join the fight!
  • pile0nades, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1"You see these blogs and cry, because they’re creatures of fierce untameable beauty."

    Lazy Geisha's blog is pretty well designed too, and very well written. nsfw http://ninasanctuary.blogspot.com/

    • jeffjonez, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0nice porn, but otherwise as vanilla as the cum.
  • rinks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Some jackass spouting a random opinion? Not worth my time"

    and yet here you are, spouting random opinions to counter those of others. Way to take stand, dude.
  • axecore, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2totaly dont look at my blog www.axecore.com
  • artfuldrone, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1http://killjim.com
  • cakefart, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Best? More like "ones the blogger prefers"

    How in the heck do any of these make a best list? Best at using white type on dark backgrounds?

    1/2 of them violate almost every useability guidline I've ever read, and the other 1/2 violate every guideline I've ever read.

    Tog and Nielsen would flay these sites alive.
  • Rounin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Um, where is http://www.456bereastreet.com and http://www.alistapart.com ??!!? Even http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com is pretty good too.
    • kupo19, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1those blogs all have good content, but aren't aesthetically outstanding.
  • tyrants, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0This website has screenshots of the websites, so this is copying. Thus, this is copyright infringment and this site is held liable.
  • Chromakode, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Beautiful designs and great discussion, but a bit ironic coming from a blog sporting a default wordpess theme. However, the author clearly knows what they are talking about. Check these sites out for some gorgeous, gorgeous design!
  • uptown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The guy couldn't come up with 10 blogs? #8 isn't a blog ... and he fully admits it.
    Lame.
  • soulrubble, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I feel cheated. I thought "best designed" meant "easiest to read". Silly me. Turns out it might mean "hardest to read".

    Sure, they're nice-looking, but I couldn't stand to actually read them regularly. Maybe even at all. :(
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1since when did best design mean easiest to read? most designs don't revolve around old people.
  • koshak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Best and Blogs teogehr is an oxymoron.

    The BEST designed blog is one that does not exist.
  • mrgone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think everything I want to say here can be summarized neatly with "***** blogs."
  • iWorks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"All fur coat and no knickers" as a friend said recently...
  • daProject, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0www.subtraction.com

    Beautiful design and great content.
  •  

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