Readers enjoy the insights blogs give into peoples' lives

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It may have started out with just a handful of people, but now more than a quarter of internet users in the UK write a weblog - or blog as they are more commonly known.

And of those taking part in the art of blogging - keeping an online diary, with frequent updates - more than half choose to make their musings available to the internet-using public, research has shown.

The range of blogs is exhaustive, with people covering everything from fashion and technology to sports and music, while some are little more than narcissistic nonsense, listing, for example, the contents of their make-up bags.

Rob Fielding, Community Publishing & Integration Manager at AOL UK, said: "Blogs have helped to revolutionise the internet. People who previously were just passive viewers, now have the chance to have their say on issues that concern them."

Writing about a hobby, travel, and news and world events were also found to be hot blog topics.

Yorkshire was found to be the blogging capital of the UK, with more than a third (35 per cent) of internet users in the area blogging, while in Wales only 16 per cent keep a blog.

The survey found a fifth of bloggers said they do it to make their voice heard and 18 per cent write to express views on topics they are passionate about.

Six per cent said they used their blog to campaign for a political issue that was important to them.

The survey also asked readers why they look at blogs.

Only one in 10 said they read them for the latest celebrity news, while more than two-thirds said they liked them because they gave insights into real people's lives, thoughts and feelings.

Readers also said they used blogs to catch up on the latest technology news (33 per cent), new music (30 per cent), current affairs (28 per cent), film news (25 per cent) and sports news (19 per cent).

But most readers said they did not trust the information they found on blogs.

Only four per cent said they saw blogs as a totally impartial form of information, with 64 per cent taking what they read with a pinch of salt.

Of those surveyed, 78 per cent trusted more traditional media and journalists more than bloggers to provide them with accurate information.

Many bloggers found they had extended their circle of friends through their blogs, and four per cent claimed to have over a thousand people as friends, regularly reading their blog entries and updates.

Mr Fielding said: "Anyone from any background can make a blog, you just need access to an internet connection, something to write about and an audience who wants to read it."

A good blogger can take the most ordinary details of their lives and give them a hilarious or poignant significance. Little Red Boat and JonnyB's Private Secret Diary are two well-established blogs that are personal without being self-absorbed.

JonnyB raises a smile daily as he charts his way through new fatherhood, cheerful builders and the wilds of Norfolk, while Anna of Little Red Boat documents her life with laugh-out-loud moments and disarming sincerity under the heading: "anna, pickard, weblog. north-east veering south 8 or 9, increasing 10. Rain then showers. Moderate with fog patches, becoming good."

As the blogging format evolves, people have become more ambitious with their blogs.

Other blogs to check out include:

- RivieraWriter - Expat scouse Francophile on art, lit and life
- Nice Cup Of Tea And A Sitdown, a celebration of a great British institution
- Adam's Eye - the funny, the bizarre and the downright twisted out there on the Internet
- AOL News Blog -have your say on the issues in the news
- Trying To Conceive, the story of a woman's thoughts on trying to conceive
- The Pet Samaritans, life at St Bernard's Animal Sanctuary & Welfare Society
- Britblog, a blog directory for British bloggers from all over the world