Cincinnati, OH (Dec. 23, 2005) -- A 2005 year-end review of blogging finds that politics took a back seat to discussions about entertainment, technology, natural disasters and the evolution of blogs as legitimate media channels, according to Intelliseek's BlogPulse.com.

Michael Jackson and Britney Spears generated more celebrity buzz than other entertainers, Boing Boing and Engadget were the two most popular blogs, "Sin City" was the most popular movie, and bloggers referred to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia for information about "podcasting" and "Hurricane Katrina" more than any other topic or issue.

In a newsy year filled with natural disasters, a Pope's death and the war in Iraq, which news story did bloggers cite most often? That honor fell to an April essay titled "Unitarian Jihad," a call for moderation and reasonableness in politics and religion, written by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Find full 2005 year-end results, including top entertainers, audio links, video links and blog posts, at the BlogPulse 2005 Year in Review.

Blogs' impact: wide and growing
"Blogs have emerged as a worldwide phenomenon that touches nearly every aspect of everyday life, commerce, technology, media, entertainment, politics -- even the coverage of natural disasters and news events, such as Hurricane Katrina and the London bombings," said Sundar Kadayam, chief technology officer for Intelliseek, which hosts the BlogPulse.com search engine and analysis tool. BlogPulse provides daily analysis from an index of more than 20 million blogs about top issues, personalities, blogs, blog posts, news stories and key phrases.

Blogs also turned serious in 2005, represented by the fifth most-cited blog post (January) from the Committee to Protect Bloggers, which launched a campaign to free two Iranians who were imprisoned for blogging.  Bloggers worldwide continue to struggle to define their roles and rights under the umbrella of freedom of speech.

Other highlights from the BlogPulse.com 2005 Year in Review, based on citations, links or references in blog posts:  

Top 10 people/personalities (in order): Harry Potter, President George Bush, the late Pope John Paul II, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, the late Terri Schiavo, Brad Pitt and Karl Rove.

Top 10 links to Wikipedia from blogs: Podcasting, Hurricane Katrina, AJAX (a web programming script), Flying Spaghetti Monster (blogger Bobby Henderson's alternative theory to "intelligent design"), United States, Wiki, Folksonomy, London subway bombings, Web 2.0, RSS, meme (shared online info/activities) and intelligent design.

Top 10 Online News Sources Cited by Blogs: Yahoo! News, BBC, New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, MSNBC, Guardian Unlimited, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today andYahoo! Finance.  Others of note: Fox News (No. 21), Canada.com (No. 32), NPR (No. 43) and The Onion (No. 70). 

Top 10 Blogs: Boing Boing, Engadget, Michelle Malkin, Albino Blacksheep, Instapundit, PowerLine (up from No. 10 in 2004), Gizmodo (up from No. 17 in 2004), Think Progress, Political Animal and Slashdot. The Huffington Post blog, which launched mid-year, ranked No. 21 among all blogs, just behind Jeff Jarvis' BuzzMachine.com.

Top 10 Movies (based on IMDB.com links): "Sin City," "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Serenity," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Batman Begins," "Sideways," "Napoleon Dynamite," "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and "War of the Worlds."

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