3greeneggs

Many of the most popular blog posts seems to come in ordered lists. Today alone, I read: 20 Ways to Use Linkedin Effectively, Waking Up Early: 15 Tips that Work, 20 Firefox Extensions that will Save You Money, and, of course, Lifehacker’s Top 10 Roundup.

Why lists? Lists are a tool for breaking down complicated ideas into understandable chunks, or to present multiple related bit of information. Blog writing tends to be lightweight and easily digestible, so it’s no surprise that bloggers make heavy use these structures.

Just for fun, let’s look at the “top” ten top ten blog posts of the last day (as reported by Google blog search and Technorati, ignoring obvious spam, porn, and anything that isn’t a top ten list):

1. Top 10 Broadband Cities Across the Planet
2. A Father’s Day Top 10
3. Top 10 Unintentionally Funny TV Intros
4. Top 10 Reasons Why Pay for Performance Sucks for SEO
5. Top 10 Worst Foods (video)
6. Top Ten Missing Features of Second Life as an Educational Simulation Platform (hey, I might have linked to this anyway!)
7. Top Ten Antivirus Software programs reviewed
8. Top 10 Science Fiction Authors of the 2000s (I agree with 8/10 of these!)
9. Video Marketplace Top Ten
10. Top 10 Highest Monuments Around the World