Personal blogs most popular with Brits

The most popular blog sites visited by UK surfers last week were those that allow consumers to create and read personal blogs

Surfers in the UK are most interested in reading personal blogs followed by those produced by news sites.

According to statistics released by web monitoring firm Hitwise the most popular blog sites visited by UK surfers last week were those that allow consumers to create and read personal blogs, such as Windows Live Spaces and MySpace Blog.

These were followed by blogs for the BBC and The Guardian and its Comment is Free site.

In the week ending 19 August, one in every 200 UK internet visits was in the Hitwise Lifestyle – Blogs and Personal Websites category.

Fugufish.org was the most visited site with 13.28 per cent share of the market. The site rose to fame in recent weeks after posting several viral videos, including one of the band OK Go and of David Bowie in Labyrinth.

Despite being the most visited individual blog in the UK, the site ranked 3,031 among all websites last week, up from 16,589 two weeks before.

The sexually explicit Girl With A One-Track Mind was second most popular with 12.61 per cent of visits.

The blog, written by Zoe Margolis, under the pseudonym Abby Lee, was the subject of media attention when the author's identity was revealed in a Sunday Times article.

The publicity saw an eight-fold increase in traffic to the site, rising from number 133 to position 17 in the Hitwise Lifestyle - Blogs and Personal Websites category in two weeks. 

"Fugufish [and] Girl with a One-Track Mind offer examples of blogs that have quickly gained a mass audience," said Heather Hopkins, vice president of research for Hitwise UK.

"Whilst the mainstream media can be an important catalyst for growth, links from other blogs, email and social networking sites can also drive growth.

"This reflects the community around blogging and a maturing of the medium that now can create its own celebrities."