Internet blogs are taking on big corporations and winning. As the bloggerati
continue to set the agenda Times Online provides the first full list of the
50 top blogs, corporate and anti-corporate alike. This list is a work in
progress - scroll down to let us know your suggestions.
ECONOMICS
1. Stumbling and Mumbling
The dismal science has delivered several very readable bloggers. Chris Dillow
combines political polemic with more whimsical matters. Recent post: “Why is
West Indian cricket so bad? Here’s a theory – only a partial, tentative
explanation. But it’s an overlooked possibility. It’s because the players’
names are unusual.” Read
the blog
2. Freakonomics
Steven Levitt, the University of Chicago economist, and Stephen J Dubner, the
New York Times journalist, carry on from where their bestselling book
Freakonomicsleft off, “exploring the hidden side of everything”. Recent
post: “There are recent studies of the death penalty – most bad, but some
reasonable – that find it has a deterrent effect on crime.” Read
the blog
3. Marginal Revolution
“Truly open borders would put an unbearable strain on the cultural foundations
of American liberal democracy; many of the immigrants themselves would be
the biggest losers.” Read
the blog
BANKING AND FINANCE
4. Going Private
Billed as the “sardonic memoirs of private equity professional” and written by
an anonymous author who says: “I spent five years manoeuvring to land, by
hook or by crook, a coveted position in private equity. After all that, I
may or may not live long enough to actually regret my decision.” Recent
post: “There are certain moments when a good antiperspirant is simply
critical. Perhaps your husband comes home early. Maybe Third Point acquires
8.5 per cent of your common stock while you are on vacation in the South of
France.” Read the blog
5. Capital Chronicle
On the iSoft saga: “That not everyone who shits on you is your enemy and not
everyone who gets you out of the shit is your friend have been useful guides
in this ongoing soap.” Read the
blog
6.
Beehive
The blog of Steve Bee, head of pensions strategy at the Royal London Group.
Was involved in the so called “battle of the pensions blogs” with James
Purnell, the Minister for Pension Reform. It adds: “Steve achieved notoriety
some years ago by becoming the only person ever to have submitted a paper in
evidence to a Commons Select Committee in cartoon-strip format.” Read
the blog
7. Abnormal Returns
A daily directory of investment reports, comment and rumour. Read
the blog
CONSTRUCTION AND PROPERTY
8. House Price Crash
The name says it all. Sample quote: “To have an idea of the timing of the
crash in the UK, look at the Irish market example. Very nice charts . . .
soon showing in our country!” Read
the blog
9. The Rat and Mouse
Spleen from unhappy house owners. “Remember the scandal of the drive-by
surveyors, charging up to £1,000 for a compulsory remortgage valuation, but
failing, even, to shift from second gear . . . it might even be worse.” Read
the blog
10. Consumerist
A US blog that promises to allow “shoppers to bite back”, though it will offer
praise when fitting: “ShopLego is super nice about sending you out new Legos
for free when your mail truck plunges into a gorge.” Read
the blog
11. Just Food
Blog on the global food industry. Asks questions such as whether “food miles
are sufficient in measuring the environmental impact of food production.” Read
the blog
ENGINEERING
12. Fastlane
The embattled General Motors has sought to blaze a trail on the blogging
front, deploying heavyweight executives including Bob Lutz. “I am not bored
with blogging, far from it,” the vice-chairman recently wrote. “And I’m not
going to let the comments of an extreme sub-set turn me off to it, either. I
will continue to do it, whenever I can, and as long as it seems people want
to read it. And by the way, GM thinks its blogs are a success, too, and will
forge ahead with all of them and more.” Read
the blog
13. AG Blog
Frank news on aerospace sector. Sample headline: “Saudi Typhoon deal was dirty
– are you surprised?” NB: Main blog requires a subscription. Read
the blog
14. Have
Your Say
Set up by a disgruntled Land Rover owner. “I have never suffered such contempt
from any manufacturer,” says one contributor. Read
the blog
HEALTH
15. Dr Crippen - NHS Blog Doctor
“Dr Crippens” experience as a GP working for the NHS. Sample comment: “Massive
litigation could force companies to leave the vaccine business, threatening
the future of one of medicine’s greatest achievements.” Read
the blog
16. Pharmalot
One entry: “Rosemany Johann-Liang, the FDA medical reviewer who was punished
for pushing a black box warning for Avandia, left the agency Friday,
becoming the latest in a string of staffers to feel the heat for refusing to
back down on safety issues." Read the
blog
17. PharmaGossip
Promises to “look beyond the spin of Big Pharma PR”. Read
the blog
INDUSTRIALS
18. The Tin Basher
The award-winning company blog of Butler Sheetmetal, a small fabrication shop
“in the darkest recesses of northwest England”. Read
the blog
LEISURE
19. Mark Cuban: Blog Maverick
Written by Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks and
chairman of HDNet, the cable network. “What else is there to do while I sit
here in the Cayman Islands relaxing and enjoying every minute of it than
ponder the NBA (National Basketball Association) Lottery.” Read
the blog
20. Who Ate All The Pies?
Football blog. “Shove! Ouch! Gulp! That’s the sound of David Beckham
ramming the words of his Real Madrid overlords down their throats.” Read
the blog
MEDIA & MARKETING
21. Tom Glocer
Despite his sporadic posting habits, the Reuters chief executive gets an
honourable mention as one of the few FTSE 100 chief executives to blog. Read
the blog
22. Byrne Baby Byrne
By Colin Byrne, of Weber Shandwick. On the Olympic logo: “If your initiative
attracts bad headlines and thousands of people take to the blogosphere as
‘badvocates’, it could be described as a PR disaster.” Read
the blog
23. Richard Edelman
PR man Richard Edelman’s blog. “There is no place in PR for spin . . . We are
in the business of presenting reality . . . ” Read
the blog
24. Seth Godin
By Seth Godin, the marketing guru. “The web has billions of pages. You’ll see
so few of them over your lifetime that the percentage is almost
unmeasurable.”
NATURAL RESOURCES
25. White Sun of the Desert
By Tim Newman, “a British expat living on Sakhalin Island, married to a
Russian, and doing what I’m told”. Sample post: “Yesterday I sat from 8am
until 4pm in a decrepit old Soviet classroom attending what was described as
a training course in industrial safety. In actual fact, this training course
was no more than a Russian bloke reading out Russian Federation Law No 116
line by line, in Russian, and then pausing whilst it was badly translated
into English. The training course cost $375 per person.” Read
the blog
26. Commodity Trader
From coffee to gold, news and comment from the commodity pits. Read
the blog
27. Oil Change International
Anticorporate site protesting about the oil industry. Read
the blog
RETAIL
28. Wal Mart Watch
One of the anticorporate blogs that look to dominate the retail sector. Sample
headline: “Wal-Mart still selling Nazi T-shirts.” Read
the blog
29. Tescopoly - Every little hurts
“The Tescopoly Alliance is calling for a block on any new takeovers by Tesco
or other major supermarkets.” Read
the blog
30. Amazon bookstore
blog
A group blog written by staff at Amazon.com, the world’s biggest online
retailer. Read the blog
31. Seeking Alpha: Retail
Markets news, mostly US-focused, on the retail sector. Read
the blog
LAW
32. Square Mile Law
“A blog by a law student soon to be in a training contract at a City firm."
One entry reads: “If a bank assigns a large number of law firms to its
panel, these firms are unlikely to want to jeopardise their income by acting
against that bank.” Read the blog
33. Overlawyered
“When Sacha Baron Cohen accepted his Golden Globe award for Borat, he famously
thanked all the Americans who hadn’t sued him ‘so far’.” Read
the blog
34. The Becker-Posner Blog
As heavyweight as blogs come, written by Gary Becker, the Nobel-winning
economist and Richard Posner, the prominent US judge and legal theorist. Read
the blog
TRANSPORT
35. The Ticket
Collector
As in retail, the transport sector is overrun with disgruntled customers. “To
top it all, as with all bank holidays, Notwork Rail has decided to improve
the track and completely shut down the line.” Read
the blog
36. Going Underground
More trivia than hard corporate news, but often amusing. Sample post: “Some of
you might be familiar with the ‘If Germany had won the war’ Tube map.”
transportblog.com More transport woes aired as “a bunch of libertarians try
to get around London. Read
the blog
TECHNOLOGY
37. Scobeleizer
By Robert Scoble, a former Microsoft employee who often criticised the
company, accruing credibility for himself and his employer on the way. Read
the blog
38. Jonathan's Blog
By Jonathan Schwartz, the chief executive of Sun Microsystems, the first
blogger to receive an official comment from the chairman of the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Read the
blog
39. The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
A parody, but so good, the real Steve Jobs reads it. “Okay, I must return to
meditating before the big speech. Much love. Namaste. Peace out. Let’s stay
positive.” Read the blog
40. Boing Boing
Boing Boing is the world's most linked-to blog, which is often seen as a
measure of authority. It's a group blog which reports about technology,
media and culture. Read the blog
41. Buzz Machine
Written by Jeff Jarvis, the tech and media commentator, a complaint from whom
was enough to persuade Dell to review its customer service policy. Read
the blog
42. TechCrunch
By Michael Arrington, whose scoops include Google’s $1.65 billion acquisition
of YouTube last year. Read the blog
43. direct2dell.com
The blog Dell launched to speak to its customers. Read
the blog
TELECOMS
44.
Charles Dunstone's Blog
Charles Dunstone gets a mention, although the Carphone Warehouse chief
executive spends much of his time apologising for problems rolling out his
“free broadband” service. Read
the blog
45. ABI Research:
Wireless
Analyst comment on the telecoms sector. “I would like to comment on Arun
Sarin’s (Vodafone chief executive) remarkable rehabilitation with the
investment community.” Read
the blog
46. NT Hell
“For information, help and advice that NTL [now Virgin Media] technical
support or customer services forgot to give you”. Read
the blog
47. The Mobile Weblog
More mobile news, including analysis of the much-anticipated Apple iPhone. Read
the blog
UTILITIES
48. The Energy Blog
Tagline: “The Energy Revolution has begun and will change your lifestyle.”
Lively blog about all kinds of alternative and green energy sources. Read
the blog
49. CleanTech Blog
Dedicated to news and comment on “next generation energy”. Read
the blog
50. Gas Guide
A blog from the Guides Network, which offer consumers tips on how to cut bills Read
the blog
Reader suggestions:
David writes to suggests two excellent London-based economics blogs: Economics
UK and New Economics,
winner of a Satin
Pajama award.
A recent blog London based business angel Permjot Valia has some great content - businessangelblog.com - and general commentary. Speciafically deals with eraly stage investment
Fergus, Faro, Portugal
I really like the Dilbert Blog
David, Gent, Belgium
www.itulip.com for a contrarian view of the world economy and particularly the US.
Chris Coles, Medstead, Alton, United Kinfdom
For Leadership, management and personal development, I have found Leading Blog (at leadershipnow.com)to be consistently one of the best out there. Also, All things workplace is useful.
Craig Dorge, Pasadena, CA
Very good list you got here. I had enjoyed browsing through each entry.
Aurelius Tjin, Sydney, Australia
Where's the OPML file with all of these???
Craig Ritchie, North York, Canada
all fab, and I have updated my blog lines accordingly, although I'm amazed that some (or for that matter any) of these blogs don't have a feed.
I don't know about anyone else, but for me, if you don't have a feed, I ain't gonna read!
Sarah, Leicester, UK
http://pushingplastic.blogspot.com
Funny and interesting UK blog by the black sheep of the Tupperware family -- a male Tupperware "Lady" working in London.
Lois Vickers, Redcar,
Be Seen Be Heard (www.amplify.co.nz) is an emerging influential business blog from down under
John Chapfield, Wellington, New Zealand
You forgot to include CenterNetworks with the tech blogs.
http://www.centernetworks.com
Maris Manuel, Monticello, MS
The Business of Fashion!!
www.uberkid.typepad.com/fashionbusiness
Tom, Hertfordshire, England
I recently got into this one -> My Cup of Cha (Blog of ING Asia/Pacific)
http://www.ingblogs.com/mycupofcha
Some of the articles there like "Second Life", "Mobile Banking", "Advisor's blog" are actually very interesting.
Nicole, Hong kong, Hong Kong
Your forgot to include the blog of reference in the highly profitable and promising domain industry:
Frank Schilling's blog
http://frankschilling.typepad.com/
Javier Marti, BR, UK
Possibly the best economics blog is Greg Mankiw's. He is a Harvard economics professor and an author of the most widely read macroeconomics textbook.
Alex Teytelboym, London,
Have a look at the Elston and Hopkin Blog a Snooker & Pool business trading since 1938. Interestting blog for Billiards , Snooker and Pool nutters !
Ted Roberts, Gainsborough, UK
Thanks for a very useful list. One extra blog that I find very useful is www.themarketingblog.co.uk
It comes through to me twice a week and I find myself as one of its 'inner circle' readers.
Will Corry, Egham, UK
A great list. A personal favourite of mine is http://www.market-insider.net
As a share trader myself, I find this an excellent resource.
Andy, Newcastle, England
A very useful and informative guide to the world of business blogs. I have to say that they is one glaring omission, I have been using http://blog.find.co.uk/ for many months now, I have so say it is one of the very best blogs for opinion, analysis and insight I have come across on these areas of investment, personal finance and business.
Tom Allen, London, UK
I'd echo Charles Brown's statement; your categories exclude blogs about business per se. Which means you miss blogs with wonderful scope, like Tom Peters, or--forgive the self-serving--Trust Matters at www.trustedadvisor.com/blog .
Charles H. Green, Morristown, US/ New Jersey
Would my website www.kitchenhell.co.uk (The truth about Moben Kitchens) count as a blog? Its purpose is to give advice to those thinking of buying or who have already bought and may be regretting their choice.
Malcolm Walker, Stockport, UK
No pure sales blogs listed? Come on! You have to include LandingTheDeal.com on your list. The whole Know More Media blog network is very helpful when it comes to business matters.
David T. Uder, Bakersfield , CA
Facebook is getting lots of press since the release of it's F8 platform for developers to build applications.
We have been doing text & video reviews and ratings of these new and useful applications for the facebook platform. There are many useful applications such as calendering, stock information, etc.
The functionality of many applications are quickly becoming relevant to business users and will become even more so as time progresses. So check out...
http:www.facereviews.com
Rodney Rumford, Solana Beach, US/CA
What about government & local government blogs - from the inside, not the official line - UK or anywhere
Peter Taylor, Harrow, UK
Market Movers is another for the top 50 list, I feel
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/
Jim, Hackney, London,
When you next run a feature on the 50 best business blogs nobody reads, do not forget to include me:
The Epicurean Dealmaker
http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com
The Epicurean Dealmaker, New York, New York
I find it interesting that your definition of "business" was almost exclusively "meta" -- that is to say what companies produce, how they produce it, and those that cover those issues -- and with few exceptions, almost nothing on how the people inside business work, think, and become better at what they do. You thus missed out on some of the more interesting sites out there. I'd include on that list Marc Andreesen's new blog (as well as blogs covering the venture capital community); the whole productiivty phenomenon (e.g. David Allen's GTD, 43 Folders, Lifehacker, etc.); and blogs on Web 2.0 & social networking (like Mashable and those tracking Facebook, Second Life and other such phenomena). Finally, while your description of Robert Scoble is accurate, you completely miss the point on his blog, which is an aggregator of/commentary on other interesting stuff that only occasionally addresses Microsoft
Charles Brown, Washington, DC USA
For agricultural issues how about http://www.fwi.co.uk/foodforthought
Isabel Davies, Sutton, Surrey
There are some great blogs here. My personal favourite is www.andyhanselman.com - rants, raves and ideas on competitiveness, customers and competence. Humourous, stimulating, and practical. Particularly useful for leaders of growing businesses.
Jill White, Sheffield, UK
Peter Dent's accusation that posters on Housepricecrash are all misanthropic socipaths is grossly unfair.
In case you hadn't noticed, there is now a whole generation of people in the UK for whom the dream of home ownership is an impossibility.
People need to wake up and realize houses do not triple in value in 10 years. People have lost the connection between price and real value. The banking system is entirely to blame for this situation. Our banking system has the power to create our money out of thin air with a miniscule reserve requirement. Our money supply is growing alarmingly at around 13-14% per annum. This growth of money supply is what drives the housing market. It is a rigged market! In more honest and enlightened times, this growth in money supply was called inflation! Not anymore it seems
Matt Myers, Redhill, UK
It's interesting to see that the most popular economics today are people who have suddenly discovered there is such a thing as 'sociology'. They have suddenly discovered there is more than methodological individualism.
I mean, Freakonomics was a nice book to read, but for someone with a sociology background there wasn't really much new in there.
stephane, Birmingham,
Would a site such as http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/ qualify as a blog?
Richard, London,
How about David Smith's very excellent economicsuk.com/blog/ ? Always readable. Bob C
Bob, London,
There are plenty of trenchant, touching and just plain weird blogs in the Middle East - check out www.eyeondubai.blogspot.com and uaecommunity.blogspot.com for a bit of real insight.
Jonathan Castle, Dubai, UAE
You also left out www.FreeMarketeers.com, which does what it says on the tin!
Stephan, zug, switzerland
You cover technology , so what about a review of best blogs for a forgotten area, such as science. That's at least half business, isn't it?
Peter Hindmarsh, Sydney, Australia
Tom: Because it's not a blog?
Andy, Brighton,
I'm astonished that you include "House Price Crash" in your list at all, never mind so high up. This bunch of misanthropic sociopaths won't be happy till their envy is sated by mass personal bankruptcy and recession. Only then (they mistakenly believe) will their god-given right to a 4-bed detached house be delivered.
On the other hand, if there was an award for internet sneering, I'd happily nominate them.
Peter Dent, Lincoln, UK
How could you miss off The Register - http://www.theregister.co.uk/ the best UK tech news site?
Tom Whitwell, Wapping, England