Googling for www.livejournal.com, the first result is naturaly www.livejournal.com. The system works, as expected. Second place is another page under the LJ site, the Create a Journal page. Understandable, since you probably get a lot of incoming links to that.

If we filter out all those administration pages, we’re left with 6 journals on the first page of google hits. 6 links to specific journals under LJ. Presumably, these are THE most popular LJs, at least the most popular among non-LJ users. These are the ones that have the most incoming links from the most important sites, or however the googlerank algorithms work.

So what’s my point here? No point. Just noticing how geek culture is the predominant topic among livejournals. This makes sense in one respect – blogs are the early adopters, they’re the ones who’ve been writing blogs for longest, and they know how and when to link. Interesting non-geek topics include current events – when they’re big enough – and topics of interest to the goth/fringe crowd. This fits in with LiveJournal’s stereotypical memberships – angst-ridden teenagers searching for understanding and companionship, often finding themselves in various sub-cultures and counter-cultures that flower on the web.

These six LJs are, in order:

1) interdictor – Documenting their experiences and impressions of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in real-time, with photos. Understandably popular. People like to slow down for car crashes.
These days seems to be focusing on general US politics/culture/sports.

2) jwz – Jamie Zawinski’s blog. Zawinski is a geek’s geek. Author of the original Netscape Navigator and (as his homepage can instantly reveal) a huge goddamn nerd. Geeks link to geeks, and Jamie floats to the top.

3) cassieclaire – Cassie Claire is the author of the Very Secret Diaries – a parody of the Lord of the Rings movie cahracters with homoerotic undertones that turned into ridiculous overtones later on. Hilarious, especially the earlier ones. Was linked to by almost everyone suspected of even the least touch of geekness during the LotR craze.

4) premshree – An Indian programmer focusing primarily on Ruby. Have no idea what makes him so popular, though he does write well.

5) docbrite – LJ of Poppy Z. Brite, a popular author known in goth/erotica/gay circles.

6) debaday – Debian Package-A-Day – an aggregation of recommendations for Linux software packages.