The Observer elevates their favorites into "The world's 50 most powerful blogs"

On Sunday, The Observer (part of Guardian News and Media in the UK) made a bold claim to cover The world's 50 most powerful blogs. Credits: Jessica Aldred, Amanda Astell, Rafael Behr, Lauren Cochrane, John Hind, Anna Pickard, Laura Potter, Alice Wignall and Eva Wiseman.

Powerful! That sounds like a list worth studying -- so we did. Here's a look in the order they presented, plus the Technorati Rank (based on unique links), Alexa rank (based on page views and visitors) and approximate category or topic.

#			Blog	T Rank	Alexa		Primary category
1			The Huffington Post	4	2,202		Liberal
2			Boing Boing	5	4,253		Esoterica
3			TechCrunch	4	1,100		Web News
4			kottke.org	588	27,828		Esoterica
5			dooce	58	23,533		Personal
6			PerezHilton.com	14	751		Celebrity Gossip
7			Talking Points Memo	58	18,828		Liberal
8			I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?	12	2,505		Humor
9			Beppe Grillo's Blog	11	9,598		Liberal
10			Gawker	29	5,930		Media News
11		?	DRUDGE REPORT	47	1,231		Politics
12			Xu Jinglei (Chinese)	-	-		Non-English
13			TreeHugger	26	13,061		Green Lifestyle
14			Microsiervos (Spanish)	59	6,466		Non-English
15			TMZ.com	13	1,115		Celebrity Gossip
16			Engadget	3	798		Gadgets
17			marbury	-	6,700,700		Politics
18			chez pim	10,543	473,316		Food & Drink
19			Basic Thinking Blog (German)	569	12,967		Non-English
20			The Sartorialist	73	44,005		Fashion & Clothing
21			Tibet Will Be Free	305,717	1,668,550		Politics
22			Jezebel	87	11,558		Celebrity Gossip
23			GIGAZINE (Japanese)	31	3,789		Non-English
24		a	Girl with a one-track mind	11,435	159,652		(adult content)
25			Mashable	9	2,448		Web News
26			Greek Tragedy	25,103	243,137		Personal
27			Holy Moly!	9,787	39,949		Celebrity Gossip
28			Michelle Malkin	50	23,772		Conservative
29			The Cranky Flier	52,048	240,102		Travel
30			Go Fug Yourself	245	17,435		Celebrity Gossip
31			gapingvoid	310	43,925		Marketing
32		x	DirtyDirtyDancing	-	174,602		Photography
33			Crooked Timber	1,242	163,939		Liberal
34			Bean Sprouts	27,355	1,254,617		Family
35			The Offside	6,535	123,838		Soccer
36			petite anglaise	11,925	345,756		Personal
37			Crooks and Liars	44	13,180		Liberal
38			Chocolate and Zucchini	1,253	151,477		Food & Drink
39			Samizdata.net	4,837	109,583		Libertarian
40			The Daily Dish	60	21,418		Politics
41			The F-Word Blog	30,891	335,533		Feminism
42			Private Secret Diary	47,970	3,616,232		Personal
43			Popjustice	14,926	77,314		Music
44			waiterrant.net	5,821	39,031		Personal
45			Hecklerspray	4,609	35,385		Celebrity Gossip
46			WOW Insider	2,584	7,554		World of Warcraft
47			AngryBlackBitch	17,837	1,533,188		Personal
48			Style Bubble	2,681	172,473		Fashion & Clothing
49		?	Blogs | AfterEllen.com	16,405	-		Personal
50			Copyblogger	31	11,696		Marketing
		Legend
			Blogcosm profile of this blog
			Link directly to the blog
		?	Arguably not a blog (what do you think?)
		x	Not a blog (at least not by our definition)
		a	Adult content

Now, every one of these blogs may be interesting, and perhaps even important in their own way. But I see little evidence of power. Even if we ignore that particular word in the headline, how are these the world's 50 most anything? Surely 9 authors could have either come up with a more realistic list, or prevailed upon the headline writer to describe it accurately. (Perhaps: a handful of our favorite blogs, with a few high-ranking ones thrown in to make the list look better.)

The title and premise is an abuse of language. I'm not sure that Orwell would be impressed. Speaking of which ... here's some background on the paper (emphasis added):

The Observer is Britain's oldest Sunday newspaper, and has been keeping readers informed, entertained and, we hope, sometimes infuriated for more than 200 years. It is celebrated all over the world for its liberal values and vigorous campaigning. We are also justly proud of the tradition of brilliant writing that has characterised The Observer, from George Orwell and Clive James to Andrew Rawnsley or Tim Adams or Kathryn Flett today.

Journalism at its finest?

By the way, on 5 of the "blogs", the article linked to the parent site not the blog itself. Gotta love that fact checking.