Top 200 Blogs for Developers (Q2 2009)

Note: The newest edition of this list is available here!

This is a sad day…

My blog is no longer the most popular software-development related blog of continental Europe. That other Dutch blogger (at #18) has managed to overtake me (at #24) in my own list. The nerve! The horror! I suspect his rise to fame was accellerated when he interviewed me some months ago. Bugger. I will let this sink in for a while. (And if you want to interview me, go away!)

In the meantime… please enjoy the 4th edition of the Top 200 Blogs for Developers.

Yes, two hundred blogs this time! Not one hundred. Two hundred! I’m in a generous mood. And that’s not the only change. The other important change is that I replaced one of the metrics in my calculations. I am no longer counting the number of comments on each blog in this list. It just wasn’t scalable. It made my fingers go numb. And my eyes bleed. And I had to drink way too much coffee. It was an unhealthy metric, if you ask me. Fortunately, a better and easier solution presented itself: I am now including PostRank (from AideRSS) in my calculations. “PostRank is based on social engagement, which refers to how interesting or relevant people have found [a blog post] to be.” (see here) The PostRank metric tells us how much people have been talking, tweeting, digging, and commenting on blog posts. It is exactly what I needed!

So, I calculated the sum of PostRank scores per blog (over a short time frame), which reflects both the quantity and quality of blog posts. (A blog with just one article scoring PostRank 10 earned as many points as a blog with 10 articles of PostRank 1.) In this new edition you can see that the inclusion of PostRank had a tremendous effect on the rankings. And a good thing too! The stale and smelly old blogs with only few fresh articles all tumbled down the list, while fresh blogs with lots of high quality content are all going up! It also resulted in a new number one!! Scott Hanselman has taken over from Joel Spolsky, which is understandable, as Scott produces many more popular articles these days than Joel does.

As I told you before, the other metrics I use are Google PageRank, Technorati Authority, Alexa Rank, Google links, and Twitter Grader Rank. Note that PostRank somewhat favors aggregated blogs with multiple authors, because they usually produce more posts per week. On the other hand, the Twitter Grader Rank favors individual authors, because individual Twitter accounts are usually more popular than collective accounts. So that should even things out…

I hope you will enjoy the new edition of this list. It was, as usual, a tremendous amount of work. If you like the results, then please tweet, digg, bookmark, and comment the hell out of it! I need it. I must take back the lead from that other Dutch guy.

(Update 1-7-2009: The list does not contain blogs where the authors exclusively write about specific tools or technologies, like .NET, Java. Every blog should have at least _some_ content that is of interest to every developer regardless of technical background. Scott Hanselman is a good example of that. He often writes about MS technologies, but also regularly about more generic topics.)


Management 3.0Do you seek more advice for Software Developers, Team Leaders & Development Managers? 

Get the book!


Management 3.0

Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders


TT LT Blog Author Twitter
1 6
Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen
Scott Hanselman
shanselman
2 2 Coding
Horror
Jeff Atwood
codinghorror
3 19 High
Scalability
Todd Hoff
4 12
Lambda the Ultimate
(various)
5 16 UIE
Brain Sparks
Jared Spool jmspool
6 13 Raible
Designs
Matt Raible mraible
7 59 Dr.
Dobb’s CodeTalk
(various)
8 14
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life
Dare Obasanjo
carnage4life
9 3
Martin Fowler’s Bliki
Martin Fowler
martinfowler
10 1 Joel
on Software
Joel Spolsky spolsky
11 8 Bokardo: Social
Design
Joshua Porter bokardo
12 25
The Berkun Blog
Scott Berkun berkun
13 18
CodeBetter.Com
(various)
codebetter
14 7 Rands
in Repose
Michael Lopp rands
15 10
Stack Overflow
Jeff Atwood
16 15 Jon Udell Jon Udell judell
17 20
Object Mentor Blog
(various)
18 37
Project Shrink
Bas de Baar
projectshrink
19 4 The Daily
WTF
(various)
dailywtf
20 30 J.D.
Meier’s Blog
J.D. Meier
21 28
Artima Weblogs
(various)
22 21 Regular
Geek
Rob Diana
robdiana
23 24 NOOP.NL Jurgen Appelo
jurgenappelo
24 81 Jeffrey
Palermo (.com)
Jeffrey Palermo
jeffreypalermo
25 46 Pure
Danger Tech
Alex Miller
puredanger
26 45
Interoperability Happens
Ted Neward
tedneward
27 124 Hot
Needle of Inquiry
Ron Jeffries
ronjeffries
28 60
Better Projects
Craig Brown
29 73 A
Software Insiders Point of View
R “Ray” Wang rwang0
30 50 Ted
Leung on the Air
Ted Leung twleung
31 69 Agile
Management Blog
David Anderson
agilemanager
32 33 secretGeek Leon Bambrick
secretgeek
33 36
Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight…
James McGovern
34 Devlicio.us (various)
devlicious
35 9
Stevey’s Blog Rants
Steve Yegge
36 31 Alex Payne Alex Payne al3x
37 58
It’s Just a Bunch of Stuff That Happens
Eric Burke
burke_eric
38 29
Google Testing Blog
(various)
39 48 Elegant
Code
(various)
elegantcode
40 5
Signal vs. Noise
(various)
37signals
41 66
Exploration Through Example
Brian Marick marick
42 57 Aligning
Technology, Strategy, People & Projects
Eric Brown
ericdbrown
43
CodeThinked
Justin Etheredge
justinetheredge
44 35
Contrast | The Blog
(various)
45 114 The
Third Bit
Greg Wilson
46 22 Otaku,
Cedric’s Weblog
Cedric cbeust
47 39
Shanine.com / omar /
Omar Shahine
omarshahine
48 11
Eric.Weblog()
Eric Sink
49 108 PMThink! (various)
50 52 Reforming Project
Management
Hal Macomber
HalMacomber
51 62
{Codesqueeze}
Max Pool mpool
52 47
Managing Product Development
Johanna Rothman
johannarothman
53 27
James Bach’s Blog
James Bach
jamesmarcusbach
54 34 Business of Software Blog Neil Davidson
neildavidson
55
Gray’s Matter
Justice Gray
56 105
Leading Agile
Mike Cottmeyer
mcottmeyer
57 55 Blankenthoughts Jeff Blankenburg
jblankenburg
58 JUnit Max Kent Beck
kentbeck
59 43 Agile Software Development (various)
agileartem
60 32 10x
Software Development
Steve McConnell
61 51
Relevance Blog
(various)
62 113
Mark Needham
Mark Needham
markhneedham
63 78 The
Braidy Tester
Micahel
64 65
Herding Cats
Glen Alleman
65 76
Chris Spagnuolo’s EdgeHopper
Chris Spagnuolo
chrisspagnuolo
66 63 /\ndy Andy Hunt
pragmaticandy
67 61 Lean Software Engineering Corey Ladas
corey_ladas
68 83
averyBlog
James Avery averyj
69 89 Creative
Chaos
Matthew Heusser
mheusser
70 41
Agile Testing
Grig Gheorghiu
71 53 James
Shore: The Art of Agile
James Shore
jamesshore
72 125
Agile Blog
(various)
73 110 Agile
Advice
(various)
74 23 Mike Cohn’s Blog: Succeeding
with Agile
Mike Cohn
75 88 Agile Developer Venkat’s Blog Venkat Subramaniam
venkat_s
76 74 Meme
Agora
Neal Ford neal4d
77 67 Object
Technology
Jeff Sutherland
jeffsutherland
78 38
StevenHarman.net
Steven Harman
stevenharman
79 68
Implementing Scrum
Mike Vizdos mvizdos
80 100 Raven’s
Brain
Raven Young
ravenyoung
81 121
Software application development
Adrian Bridgwater
abridgwater
82 145 My Secret
Life as a Spaghetti Coder
Sammy Larbi
codeodor
83 70 Bit-Player Brian Hayes
84 77
Evolving Web
Jim Benson
ourfounder
85 71 The
Mendicant Bug
Jason Adams ealdent
86 94 Curious Cat John Hunter
curiouscat_com
87 49 Coding the Architecture (various)
88 40
Software by Rob
Rob Walling
89 44 Tyner
Blain
Scott Sehlhorst
sehlhorst
90 64 All About Agile Kelly Waters
allaboutagile
91 42
Alistair Cockburn
Alistair Cockburn
theotheralistai
92 115 Insights You Can
Use
Esther Derby
estherderby
93 99 Clarke
Ching – More Chilli Please
Clarke Ching
clarkeching
94 80 The Cutter
Blog
(various)
cuttertweets
95 102
Testing Hotlist Update
Bret Pettichord
bpettichord
96 82 Test
Obsessed
Elisabeth Hendrickson
testobsessed
97 Cem
Kaner’s Blog
Cem Kaner
98 143
Edge of Chaos
Michael Dubakov
mdubakov
99 87 Petzold Book Blog Charles Petzold
100 104 Agility@Scale Scott W. Ambler

Management 3.0Do you seek more advice for Software Developers, Team Leaders & Development Managers? 

Get the book!


Management 3.0

Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders


101 175 The
Working Geek
Andy Lester
petdance
102 98
Lazycoder
Scott Koon
lazycoder
103 119 You’d
think with all my video game experience…
Jason Yip jchyip
104 168 Agile
Software Process Improvement
Jason Gorman
jasongorman
105 101
Ruminations of a Programmer
Debasish Ghosh
debasishg
106 132 From the
Editor of Methods & Tools
Martinig
107 72
Software Project Management
Pawel Brodzinski
pawelbrodzinski
108 90 Moserware Jeff Moser
jeffmoser
109 109 DevelopSense Blog Michael Bolton
michaelbolton
110 92
Collaborative Software Testing
Jonathan Kohl
111 130 Quality
through Innovation
Adam Goucher
adamgoucher
112 107
Crazeegeekchick.com
Dana Coffey
crazeegeekchick
113 160 Wille
Faler’s Buzzword Bingo
Wille Faler wfaler
114 126 MrDave’s
(David Yack) Blog!
David Yack
davidyack
115 118 Scaling Software
Agility
Dean Leffingwell
116 96
LeadingAnswers
Mike Griffiths
117 166 Antony Marcano’s Blog Antony Marcano
118 85
Wide Awake Developers
Michael Nygard
mtnygard
119 137
Effective Software Development
Dave Nicolette
davenicolette
120 95
Yourdon Report
Ed Yourdon yourdon
121 26 Good
coders code, great reuse
Peteris Krumins
pkrumins
122 171
Jbrains.ca
J.B. Rainsberger jbrains
123 79
Tester Tested!
Pradeep Soundararajan
124 91
Codemonkeyism
Stephan Schmidt
codemonkeyism
125 Cory
Foy
Cory Foy
cory_foy
126 146 Project Management 2.0 Andrew Filev andrewsthoughts
127 149
Thought Clusters
Krishna Kumar
krishami
128 111 Focused Performance Frank Patrick
fpatrick
129 182
AvailAgility
Karl Scotland
kjscotland
130 75 Word
Aligned
Thomas Guest
thomasguest
131 86
Notes from a Tool User
Mark Levison
mlevison
132 140
Information Technology Dark Side
David Christiansen aldos
133 135 Agile
Chronicles
(various)
134 93 Jeff Patton’s Holistic Product
Design & Development
Jeff Patton
jeffpatton
135 128 I.M. Wright’s “Hard Code” Eric Brechner
136 173 Shaping
Software
J.D. Meier
137 139 Enterprise Architecture &
Other Enterprise Topics
Mike Kavis
madgreek65
138 56
David Chelimsky
David Chelimsky
dchelimsky
139 144
/var/log/mind
Dhananjay Nene dnene
140 158
Scott Bellware
Scott Bellware
bellware
141 Peripatetic Axiom Keith Braithwaite
keithb_b
142 161
NetObjectives
(various)
143
@Kirkk.com
Kirk Knoernschild
pragkirk
144 155 8th Light
Blog
(various)
145 153
Steve Rowe’s Blog
Steve Rowe
steve_rowe
146 97 Silk and
Spinach
Kevin Rutherford
kevinrutherford
147 138 PierG Piergiorgio Grossi pierg
148 151 Cthulhu and
Other Crazies
Swizec swizec
149 152 Steve
Freeman
Steve Freeman
150 176 Me.Andering Willem van den Ende
most_alive
151 159 fede.carg
( blog )
Federico Cargnelutti
fedecarg
152 174 Musings of a
Software Development Manager
Ed Gibbs
153 147 Requirements Defined (various)
seilevel
154 112
Agile Thoughts
Tobias Mayer
tobiasgmayer
155 163 Chris Sterling’s Blog Chris Sterling csterwa
156 190 Agile
in Action
Simon Baker
energizr
157 103
Legends of the Sun Pig
Martin Sutherland sunpig
158 134 George
Dinwiddie’s Blog
George Dinwiddie
gdinwiddie
159 Rediscovering the
Obvious
Willeke
erwilleke
160 141 Agile
Artisans
Jared Richardson
jaredrichardson
161
LitheSpeed’s LitheBlog
(various)
162 177
Intergen Blog
(various) teamintergen
163 123
Thinking Tester
Shrini Kulkarni shrinik
164 Partnership &
Possibilities
Diana Larsen
dianaofportland
165 Agile & Business Joe Little
jhlittle
166 191 On Software Development,
Agile, Startups, and Social Networking
Isaac Sacolick nyike
167 127
Jonathan Babcock
Jonathan Babcock jonbab1
168 154 Agile Game
Development
Clinton Keith
169 Rob
Bowley
Rob Bowley
robbowley
170 131 Cauvin Roger L. Cauvin rcauvin
171 193
Wayne Allen’s Weblog
Wayne Allen
172 180 Chris McMahon’s Blog Chris McMahon chris_mcmahon
173 181 It’s Common Sense,
Stupid
Soon Hui Ngu
174
Sander Hoogendoorn
Sander Hoogendoorn
aahoogendoorn
175 136 Jcooney.NET Joseph Cooney
josephcooney
176
Tea-Driven Development
Matt Wynne
177 120 Ytechie Jason Young ytechie
178 162 Jimmy
Nilsson’s Blog
Jimmy Nilsson
jimmynilsson
179 106 Agile
CMMI Blog
Hillel Glazer hi11e1
180 183 James Grenning’s Blog James Grenning
jwgrenning
181 186 Running
Agile
Christophe Louvion
182 170 Rebecca’s Blog Rebecca Wirfs-Brock
183 169
Engineering Game Development
Lee Winder
spreetree
184 198 Simple Architectures for
Complex Enterprises
Roger Sessions
rsessions
185 133 Bartosz Milewski’s
Programming Cafe
Bartosz Milewski
BartoszMilewski
186
Ivar Jacobson’s Blog
Ivar Jacobson
ivarjacobson
187 165 Technology Architecture
& Projects
Robert McIlree
rmcilree
188
DrunkenPM
Dave Prior mrsungo
189
Software Sweatshop
Raza Imam
190
Falkayn’s Nest
Angus McDonald falkayn
191 84 GrokCode Jess
grokcode
192 122
Hicks-Wright.net
Tyler Griffin Hicks-Wright
193 167 Andrew
Tokeley
Andrew Tokeley
194 157
Agile Development Thoughts
Damon Poole
damonpoole
195 179
Mult.ifario.us
Paul R. Brown
paulrbrown
196 Matt O’
Rama
Matt Grommes
mattgrommes
197 194
A Test Guy
Dave Liebreich
atestguy
198 150
Richard Durnall
Richard Durnall
199 Pols
Consulting
Andy Pols
andy_pols
200 On Agile Leadership Manfred Lange

Legend
TT = This Time
LT = Last Time


Management 3.0Do you seek more advice for Software Developers, Team Leaders & Development Managers? 

Get the book!


Management 3.0

Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders


Note: for some of the statistics I happily used the script that was kindly supplied by Steven Machtelinckx. This saved me a lot of time… Thanks Steven!


Wait! Don't stop reading now. I have some more interesting lists for you:


My new book Managing for Happiness is available from June 2016.

Managing for Happiness cover (front)
  • This Post Is NOT About Michael Jackson
  • Agile Is NOT a Risk Management Strategy
Related Posts
free book
GET MY FREE BOOK!
“How to Change the World”