The first question which come up to my mind while reading the Top 30 VoIP Blog by SmithOnVoIP.com is: what criteria has been used to create this list ? The owner of SmithOnVoIP.com says:
* I have tried to rank these blogs based on their importance in providing thought provoking innovative work on the Voice Over IP industry. There is plenty of room for debate.
* I ranked the blog not only on importance, but on the amount of time spent on the Voice Over IP industry as many of the blogs touch on other industries as well. Again,there is plenty of room for debate.
* Only English langauge blogs have been included.
* I must surely missed a few. If you think you should have been added, please respond in the comments section below.
* I do not read each of the blogs everyday, but I try to read each of them at least once a week.
* I did not add this blog as it has not been around long enough, and well I still do not consider it to be on par with the majority of blogs below.
I agree with each of the points above. Anyway, one of the possible ways to rank a blog is to verify how many other blogs refer to it. In fact, Google’s ranking engine do something like that and the well known Technorati portal do exactly the same as well.
The basic idea is that if many other blogs/websites link to your blog, it means that the content of your blog is relevant. And, moreover, if those blogs/websites are linked many times by other blogs/websites, it means that your blog is linked and referred by high-ranked blogs/websites, that is influential blogs/websites.
So, I was really curious to double check the listing, verifying the Technorati rank of each of the listed blogs, since I don’t agree with some of the rankings attributed by SmithonVoIP.com.
For instance, I’d put Alec Saunders.log among the Top 10, while I’d “downgrade” Greg Gatlitzine’s VoIP Authority Blog to the 11-20 group.
Yes, you’d say that’s just a matter of personal tastes, anyway here is the complete listing according to Technorati and, even here, there is plenty of room for debate 
.
I also added (in bold) some “VoIP blogs” that I read daily and haven’t been included in the listing.
* TOP 10 *
1) GigaOM (Top 100 on Technorati)
* Rank: 47 (15,622 links from 4,431 blogs)
* URL: http://gigaom.com
2) Skype Blogs
* Rank: 1,630 (1,746 links from 879 blogs)
* URL: http://share.skype.com/sites/en
3) IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband | ZDNet.com
* Rank: 2,179 (1,495 links from 738 blogs)
* URL: http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony
4) Alec Saunders .LOG — An explosive mix of VoIP, Technology, Wine, and Politics
* Rank: 4,291 (1,242 links from 461 blogs)
* URL: http://saunderslog.com
5) The Jeff Pulver Blog – Notes, comments and observations
* Rank: 4,518 (1,639 links from 446 blogs)
* URL: http://pulverblog.pulver.com
6) Skype Journal
* Rank: 4,553 (2,955 links from 443 blogs)
* URL: http://skypejournal.com
7) VoIP & Gadgets Blog
* Rank: 4,944 (2,279 links from 415 blogs)
* URL: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating
VoIP Watch
* Rank: 6,474 (1,200 links from 333 blogs)
* URL: http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch
9) O’Reilly Emerging Telephony
* Rank: 11,439 (548 links from 206 blogs)
* URL: http://www.oreillynet.com/etel
10) Telepocalypse by Martin Geddes
* Rank: 12,199 (635 links from 193 blogs)
* URL: http://www.telepocalypse.net
In the Top 10 above, two blogs are about Skype. It’s obvious that their popularity is mainly due to Skype popularity. GigaOm is the #1… who cannot agree ? And, as I imagined, Alec’s blog is among the top 5.
—————————
11-20
—————————
11) Digital Common Sense
* Rank: 17,802 (478 links from 137 blogs)
* URL: http://ipadventures.com
12) 21talks
* Rank: 17,802 (265 links from 137 blogs)
* URL: http://21talks.net
13) VoIP Now
* Rank: 19,736 (738 links from 125 blogs)
* URL: http://www.voipnow.org
14) Jon Arnold’s Blog
* Rank: 30,056 (355 links from 85 blogs)
* URL: http://blogs.pulver.com/jarnold
15) VoIP Blog – Tehrani.com
* Rank: 31,557 (227 links from 81 blogs)
16) Realtime-VoIP: The VoIP Community Weblog
* Rank: 40,282 (257 links from 64 blogs)
* URL: http://realtime-voip.typepad.com
17) Thoughts on VoIP, technology… and more
* Rank: 42,611 (163 links from 61 blogs)
* URL: http://lucafiligheddu.blogspot.com
18) VoIP Lowdown
* Rank: 43,366 (107 links from 60 blogs)
* URL: http://www.voiplowdown.com
19) The PhoneBoy Blog | VoIP, Telecom, and Technology Made Simple
* Rank: 49,257 (308 links from 53 blogs)
* URL: http://www.phoneboy.com
20) IP Inferno
* Rank: 51,558 (136 links from 51 blogs)
* URL: http://ipinferno.blogspot.com
Many blogs of the “11-20″ list are not properly focused on VoIP, but they cover also technology in general, Web 2.0, internet trends etc. A particular mention to Nuno’s blog, 21Talks.net, who is doing a great job, and to Daemon’s blog, alias Phoneboy, who is more and more demonstrating who is really a great writer.
—————————
21-30
—————————
21) Communications
* Rank: 54,844 (149 links from 48 blogs)
* URL: http://blogs.nmss.com/communications
22) Aswath Weblog
* Rank: 57,638 (195 links from 46 blogs)
* URL: http://www.mocaedu.com/mt
23) Solomon VoIP World: VoIP | IP Telephony | VoIP Telephony | Internet Telephony | VoIP Solution | VoIP Security
* Rank: 65,570 (70 links from 41 blogs)
* URL: http://solokay.blogspot.com
24) Asterisk VoIP News | Daily News and Information
* Rank: 67,295 (211 links from 40 blogs)
* URL: http://www.asteriskvoipnews.com
25) VoIP news, product reviews and information – VoIP Loop – IP telephony for the enterprise – Home
* Rank: 88,751 (91 links from 31 blogs)
* URL: http://www.voiploop.com
26) VoIP Blog and Podcast by Erik Lagerway
* Rank: 91,715 (98 links from 30 blogs)
* URL: http://blog.tmcnet.com/sipthat
27) Mr Blog
* Rank: 91,715 (39 links from 30 blogs)
* URL: http://www.toyz.org/mrblog
28) Greg Galitzine’s VoIP Authority Blog
* Rank: 122,488 (47 links from 23 blogs)
* URL: http://voip-blog.tmcnet.com/blog/greg-galitzine
29) Signal to Noise
* Rank: 128,694 (170 links from 22 blogs)
* URL: http://macvoip.com/stn
30) Irvin Lazar’s “Real-Time” Blog
* Rank: 129,182 (44 links from 22 blogs)
* URL: http://www.irwinlazar.com/realtime
Others…
Voipsupply.com Blog
* Rank: 362,287 (9 links from 8 blogs)
* URL: http://blog.voipsupply.com
Mark’s VoIP Security Blog
* Rank: 468,799 (8 links from 6 blogs)
* URL: http://www.voipsecurityblog.typepad.com
cernio
* Rank: 811,966 (8 links from 3 blogs)
* URL: http://cernio.blogspot.com
The presence of Presence
* Rank: 1,056,146 (2 links from 2 blogs)
* URL: http://the-presence-of-presence.blogspot.com
Smith On VoIP – Insights on Voice Over IP Products and Services
* Rank: 1,489,948 (No blogs link here)
* URL: http://www.smithonvoip.com
The debate is opened
Technorati Tags: 21talks, 21talks.net, alec saunders, aswath, bruce stewart, cernio, digital common sense, dotmarketer, enrico marongiu, giacomo vacca, greg galitzine, ip inferno, ipadventures, irvin lazar, jeff pulver, jon arnold, ken camp, luca filigheddu, nuno bastei, om malik, phoneboy, pulverati, puppy, rich tehrani, signal to noise, smithonvoip, technorati, top 30 voip blogs, voip, voip watch
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