10 Best Technology Blogs or Bloggers

With literally millions of blogs out there it can be awfully difficult to identify the technology blogs you should shower with your attention. I've tried to solve this problem by providing you with a quick and dirty list of the 10 best blogs or bloggers on the net. These may not be the blogs with the absolute highest number of hits, or the most well known of blogs, but they are the blogs that offer the greatest scope and depth about everything that tech lovers could possible want to explore. The list includes a handful of sites that aim to help you shop for tech smarter and more cheaply, others are little more than fiery personality driven columns that feature a unique vision of what it means to exist in the universe of the microchip.

1) Techcrunch
As a a former lawyer who used to help put together legal documents for Apple, Netscape, Pixar, and others during the booming late nineties, Michael Arrington created Techcrunch as a group-edited blog whose mission was to cover technology start-ups, particularly the Web 2.0 sector. He, and his staff of writers cover new startups, old stalwarts, and hold their own convention, Techchrunch 50, which showcases 50 of the brightest new startups on the web each. The articles are all conversational and rarely venture into the deeply technical. Most of the analysis is primarily focused on the impact of the startup on the web space and the impact of decisions by stalwarts such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple, on these new emerging players. Techcrunch makes the list because they've found a way to not only report and prognosticate about everything tech, but they've found a way with their Techcrunch 50, to encourage new entrepreneurial ventures in the so called Web 2.0 space.

2) CNET.com
Founded in 1993, CNET Networks or CNET.com as it is known, is an online portal who is known for their excellent reviews of consumer electronics, software, and hardware, as well as price comparisons, news about anything and everything in the tech world, as well as CNET TV. If you are shopping for anything tech related and want to know more information about a product's specifications, standards, and how they match up to their competitors, then CNET is the place
for you. They are also home to superstar podcasters Tom Merritt and Molly Wood from one of the more popular podcasts on the net, Buzz Out Loud. A granddaddy of sites, they were included on this list because they've set the standard for what a tech enthusiast site can be.

3)Techmeme
At this moment, the hottest stories in technology are scattered across dozens of news sites and blogs, requiring multiple visits to different sites, or the use of a RSS feed reader. Fortunately, Techmeme updates all of these stories and links around the clock on a single, easy-to-scan page, using an auto-generated news-picking software system. Because Techmeme draw their stories from every major blog and news site on the web, the subject matter can be anything and
everything tech related from tech personality human interest stories to new products, services, and reviews. Each listing on the page is just an excerpt of the original post. Citations lead readers to back to the original author's blog or news site, if reader's wish to explore the full article. It was created by Gabe Rivera, and unveiled in September 2005. Included on this list because Rivera implented such a simple idea in such an elegant way.

4) Daring Fireball by John Gruber
Daring Fireball was conceived and created by John Gruber. He is a technical writerand technologypundit from the greater Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
area. Gruber received his Bachelor of Science in computer science from Drexel University. Daring Fireball covers all things Apple- and Web-related.
Gruber's fan base has grown because of his unique snarky insight, and because of his diligence with posting, often posting multiple times a day on a wide array of subjects. While his blog is focused primarily on technology, he often pours out a stream of consciousness about other subjects as well, from politics to
baseball. Gruber's Daring Fireball makes this list because his personality is sincere and unforgettable. One visit and it becomes apparent to a reader how he has managed make his blog stand out among the many other professional and amateur bloggers who cover tech.

5) EnGadget
Founded by Peter Rojas, and launched in cooperation with Jason Calacanis's syndicated blog empire, Weblogs, Inc. EnGadget is solely focused with the task of reviewing the consumer electronics gadgets are often your favorite gifts under the Christmas tree. These would be toys such as your iPhone, Visio
television, or Pleo dinosaur. They accomplish with task with a relatively moderate sized staff of editors. Their most notable personality, Ryan Block, who recently departed as editor-in-chief in order to start a new venture with Peter Rojas called GDGT, was largely held responsible by many Apple investors as being
responsible for slicing $4 billion dollars off of the Apple, Inc. market cap in six minutes on a morning in May 2007 when he made an errant post that was unconfirmed, but believed to come from inside Apple, that declared that the hot iPhones would be delayed. The news sent the stock tumbling. The blog
determined the email was bogus and posted a correction. The stock rebounded, within 20 minutes, but Ryan Block, who may have been relatively unknown to some of the tech world, had already become synomonous, for right or wrong, with the power of the blogger in the financial world. This alone means that EnGadget deserves a spot on this list.

6) Ars Technica
Founded in 1998, Ars Technica is one of the more long-in-the-toothed of the blogs. Roughly translated into Lation as "art of technology" Ars Technica does the standard reviews about consumer electronics and computers (of all operating systems by the way), they are also one of the few blog sites that has devoted a section of their site to the monitoring and reporting of legal rulings and potential legal snares in "Law and Disorder" that might impact technology enthusiasts. In a nutshell, they specialize in helping readers synthesize the potential implications of new devices and web services, in our current and future society. After CNET, they are the other granddaddy of sites that existed pre Web 2.0. Through the tumultuous changes on the web over the last decade, they've shown
an ability to innovate and retain talent in the face of tech bubble that burst, and a deluge of competition.

7) Valleywag
Valleywag, simply put, is the online equivalent of the gossip magazine People for the tech industry. If Kevin Rose has picked up a new date, or Chad Hurley has chatted up someone famous at a recent Vanity Fair society party, you'll likely discover it here. They don't often to teach you much about new products, or how to use the products that you currently own better, but they certainly know how to entertain the geekiest of gossipers. While it could be argued that they are not really a tech site, they belong on the list because even though they may feel a bit sleazy at times, they've done a remarkable job of identifying a surprisingly profitable niche for news coverage.

8) Gizmodo
Gizmodo does all of the heavy lifting tech reporting that fellow Gawker media blog, Valleywag ignores. They are often one of a handful of sites that enthusiasts turn to while monitoring a Steve Jobs keynote in real time, and one of the few blogs that Steve Jobs has actually mentioned that he reads. They cover consumer electronics, just as their nemesis blog EnGadget does, but their writing style and the personality of their editors comes off often like they are the founding members of this generation's version of the Kesey's Merry Pranksters of tech, with an ethos that is clearly 2 parts punk to every 1 part rock. They were also founded by Peter Rojas, before EnGadget snagged him. Most well known of the Gizmodo gang is their Editorial Director Brian Lam, who was a former writer at Wired, and Gizmodo's champion in the EnGadget/Ryan Block vs. Gizmodo blog war. Curiously, Lam is consulting with Block and Rojas on their new tech reporting venture, the little known GDGT. Gizmodo makes the list because Steve Jobs said so! Actually, in all seriousness, Gizmodo's competition with EnGadget has served to raise the profile and quality of both tech blogs, and they've found a way to entertain at the same time.

9) PhilipElmer-Dewitt
Dewitt, now the author behind Apple 2.0, a Fortune blog for CNN Money, he has the distinction of being TIME magazine's first computer writer, hired in 1979, at the crest of what would become the personal computer revolution. His blog focuses entirely on anything and everything related to Apple, Inc., a skill that he has been practicing since beginning coverage of the company in 1982. The point of every Dewitt post is to help educate investors who might be thinking of pouring their savings into the tech world, Apple in particular. Any list like this requires some gravitas from some actual qualified tech journalists, and they don't usually come more qualified that Philip Elmer-Dewitt.

10) Tech Check with Jim Goldman
Goldman's blog is a one man effort on behalf of CNBC as a tech financial analyst, whose scope covers all of the tech. He tends to identify and focus quickly on the trends that are arising in the zeitgeist, be it the latest Steve-note, or the reaction of the technorati to the most recent Microsoft ad with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. As a journalist, he tends to write everything in a rather objective and neutral point of view. At the heart of the technolgy interest lies the dreams of young men and women who dare to ask the question, "What if..." Unfortunately, in the real world, dreams usually need hard currency and a skillful management. Goldman seems to have found a way to illuminate both the nitty gritty backroom deals and the dreamlike demonstrations of technology of the finanace industry in a way that makes Wall Street almost look respectable.