LEBANON’s 40 MOST VISITED BLOGS WITH REVIEWS

We went on and had nearly 700 Lebanese blogs ranked by the Alexa web traffic ranking system. You know, we just had to know our position, and there are no proper ranking systems for Lebanese blogs. (See how we did it at end of blog post).

Here is a list of the 40 most visited Lebanese blogs. We also took the freedom to write a little review for each of them.

01 >> +961

You know how it is. When you’re +961 you don’t have an “about” button on your page. You just put “In The Press”. Cool style. And it doesn’t matter if your blog looks like shit when it’s the 210th most visited website in Lebanon. The simplicity of the site is probably the key to his grande success, because it actually loads on the super slow Lebanese internet. Great job!

02 >> Blog Baladi

This blog has only been around for a little more than one year, and it’s already Lebanons 240th most visited website. That’s pretty impressive. They definitely broke the code. And every day you can go in and check out what Chahe, Mark and Najib wants to tell the world.

03 >> The Angry Arab News Service

The website looks like it was designed before Bill Gates’ times, and reminds us of the days when the internet in Europe was as slow as it is in Lebanon today. But the old school blog has been operated in California by As’ad AbuKhalil since 2003, where he loyally posts around 20 entries a day with quotes and links to political news articles.

04 >> Anissa’s blog

A simple blog from a Lebanese food writer that lives in a gorgeous loft in the hipster district of East London. (Though she doesn’t like the nightlife and the alcohol tourism in her neighborhood). This woman knows how to cook, and she writes books about it and stuff. When she’s not writing books about cooking, she travels to Syria, Turkey & Morocco to cook. When she’s not cooking for others, she cooks for her self. She cooked her way up to number four on this list. Impressive!

05 >> Design Fetish

It’s probably a good idea to put the name “fetish” in your blog name. You know how the internet works… so many naughty people out there. Well, anyways, “Kushu” is a designer for Yves Saint Laurant in Paris, which means that she pretty much made it. And, yeah, she blogs about all sorts of design, which is pretty cool.

06 >> All Day i Dream of Photography

Photo blog by Antoine Khater where he posts old and new photos from famous and none-famous photographers. Some pretty good stuff there, and some pretty cheesy. It’s cool, but isn’t Pinterest taking over for the photo blogs?

07 >> Strawberry Blu

Strawberry Blu is a blog that answers your questions on Nutrition, Health, Dieting, & Cooking. You ask the question and they get you a qualified answer by an expert within 72 hours… (is it not the expert that needs to be qualified?) However, it’s probably a great resource for fitness fans. (Unnecessary for the 2famous.TV staff).

08 >> nittyGriddy

We wouldn’t trust any advice from a social media blog unless they have a high ranking. That’s where Ingrid Abboud comes in. She obviously knows what she’s doing, though we’re a little bit uncomfortable with the ugly design… but with a pretty face you can get away with anything. (The ugly design somehow makes it look more personal, which makes it kind of cute). She is also the founder of a Social Media Journal called nittyGriddy.

09 >> Beirut Spring

Is an alternative, casual and personal take on Lebanese (and regional) news from the perspective of a Lebanese who lives abroad. Mustapha has been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005. He is originally from Tripoli, but currently lives abroad with his family. Consistent blog with clean and easy design that makes the site easy to navigate. Serious content with a personal twist! A classic blog from an experienced writer.

10 >> Gino’s Blog

A serious blogger and one of the old players in the game. His page is quite complete, easy to rest your eye on, and easy to navigate in. Gino loves clubbing, blogs about everything, and is, like many other Lebanese of his age, only interested in electronic music. Apart from that he loves Science and Biology, and hopes to be able to (literally) pick our brains apart in the future.

Here is a video from The famous bloggers of Beirut – They’re all hot! that we did a while ago.

11 >> Blogging Beirut

Claims to deliver Breaking News and Information on Beirut and Lebanon. Although the site is not that much “Breaking news” the articles are informative and very interesting and rightly enough about Beirut. Contains a wide range of posts on different human and social issues and problems that occurs in Lebanon. The site spreads information about protests and other events.

12 >> Ink on the Side

Ink On The Side is a cartoon blog made by programer Sareen Akharjalian who is a CARTOONIST BY NIGHT! Lots of posts dating back to Feburary 2010. Short sarcastic cartoons dealing with the daily life of a young woman in Beirut. Perfect for the cartoon lover or the random famous guy.

13 >> The Food Blog

Is a well done food and drinks blog about, as the author himself puts it; a written collection of complete randomness produced by the scattered brain of Sydney-based food writer Fouad Kassab. Like many great men before him Fouad likes to explore and he likes to eat, and perhaps what makes this blog what it is, is that he also likes to written.

Fouad says he became increasingly interested in food, its history, its migration and its significance in a cultural context. Therefor he researched and learnt about the food of his own region, the Levant. He started The Food Blog partially as a way to document his personal learning experience and to share his heritage and culture. The site contains interesting articles for the food lover and great tips for the random famous dude with a date.

14 >> Dirty Kitchen Secrets

Is a food blog done by Bethany Kehdy, a Lebanese-American; born in Houston and raised in Lebanon. First thing you will notice on this blog is that Bethany is very beautiful. Then you will see that she is very talented as well. First of all the site is practically categorized with a smooth design. The photos on the site are of high quality and it also contains videos of how to make different meals. Bethany Kehdy also lead culinary tours across Lebanon as well as organize Food Blogger Connect, Europe’s first and only conference and forum for food bloggers. We hope her food tastes as good as her web site looks. (might get a lot of competition from pinterest.com)

15 >> Sawt al Niswa

The feminst web space blog. The Niswa (women) are feminist writers, artists and activists working towards changing their realities by taking the initiative to build a space representing and reflecting on the social, political and intellectual experiences of women living in the Arab region. Blogging for change and we like it. The site contains article in both english and arabic.

16 >> Lebanon Spring

Cool “rock and roll style” sarcasm blog on current events. Mainly blogs on politics and social events both on Lebanon and the middle east. This is an independent Lebanese blog which was started at the time of the Arab Spring in 2011. Although it features ‘Lebanon’ in its name, ironically Lebanon – from the few countries in the region – is not experiencing a ‘Spring’ status at the moment, and it won’t experience any in the foreseeable future. The writer, @TheZako, wants a civil democratic systems prevailing in Lebanon, the Arab World, and
the Middle East. He is with human rights, and freedom to all the people demanding them wherever in the Middle East. A real freedom blog, with passion!

17 >> The Siren

This blog is in Italian and we have no idea what its about or why it is so popular in Lebanon. From the design it looks like it is a personal blog from a young mum that likes the beach a lot. Perhaps she is jet setting between Beirut and Milano or something. Perhaps she is a model or a designer or something, it is hard to say. But she likes purple fonts. Thats for sure!

18 >> Conscious Living

Every once in a while we come over a blog that seems a bit more like a blog in the retro sense of the word. Just look at the intro on this one:

Hello there!
My name is Bilal Kamoon, I’m a 17 y.o guy from Lebanon (See photo). Two year ago (July 11 2010), I started this blog as a journal to jot down my thoughts and learnings, only to discover the great opportunities it presented to motivating people and inspiring them.

Random facts about me: I am vegetarian. I like reading, listening to music and just chilling out… oh and blogging too (; I don’t watch Tv, although I likee movies. My two favorite actors are Johnny Depp and Julia Roberts. I’m an early riser. I’m muslim (: I like country music, especially Taylor Swift’s songs. I also like motivational and inspirational songs. I collect quotes, and currently preparing an ebook from my collection. Let’s see… I’m white, tall, skinny, dark hair, brown eyes… I’ve spent all of my life in Lebanon, but traveling the world is on top of my to-do list. I like chess, programing, using Photoshop and motivating people randomly at omegle.com. Favorite TV shows: House and Friends. Favorite movies: The Illusionist, Bridge to Terabithia.

Respect bro! Respect.

19 >> Life is 2 Short

Picture blog of random cool stuff. Looks just like Pinterest.com and gets its hits from StumbleUpon.com. The internet generation knows better than anyone that, life is to short for any text and this site works great for restless teenagers with just enough concentration span to caste a glimpse at a photo. Must be a stumble expert 4 sure!

20 >> LebHR

LebHR “The Lebanese Human Resources Community” delivers useful and innovative information for those who seek more knowledge in human resources best practices. LebHR seek to deliver the users with the latest news, noteworthy tips, tutorials, topics and resources for everybody who wants to get involved in the world of Human resources. The site contains articles and blog posts about issues from social media to how to be happy at the workplace. The blog has a way too serious design that gives a cold corporate look.

21 >> Hummus Nation

The site is in Arabic and impossible for any of the current members of the 2famous.TV staff (or even board members) to understand. But in this case we can learn a lot from the name. It obviously has something to do with Hummus and with Nation. Perhaps it is a nationalistic cooking blog that is fighting for the recognition of the Lebanese Hummus producers. No matter what they write about, they do it consistently and they post many posts a week.

22 >> A Separate State of Mind

This is the blog of Elie expresses anything that comes to his mind. He writers about Lebanese music, movies or just random news. The blog’s name is “A Separate State of Mind” because Elie don’t shy away from talking about subjects that many may consider taboo or unworthy of attention. Normally pretty long blog posts so perfect for the blog lovers.

23 >> Beirutiyat

Very hectic Blog in Arabic. Has a lot of photos of young people so perhaps its like a Lebanese VICE or something…

24 >> ritakml

Rita is as she puts it herself; A Lebanese with extremely diverse interests. On her blog she writes about Lebanon and her travels, she posts about photography, Human resources and Real estate and all kind of events… yeah its a blog :)

25 >> Ivy Says

The first Lebanese blog we ever saw. Ivy writes a lot about what she and here girls are drinking and what kind of problems/joys they are having. Ivy needs to stop photographing the food she eats and focus on getting a few shots of herself out there.

26 >> Trella

Is a blog in Arabic. From the looks of it they are also very much against internet cencorship. Just like 2famous.Tv (link) Their slogan is: politically incorrect since 1998. Changing Lebanon 1KB at a time! So we hope they are blogging about freedom of speech and human rights and other important things.

27 >> John Antonios

This blog is intended to help businesses make the best of the new marketing tools out there. John talks about Social Media and all its magic. If you want to know more about tools like Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Search Engine Optimization, then you have to check out his site.

On his site John Antonios wears a suit and wants to help you, help yourself in doing what is more important here in life. Making money! And it works. Antonios has got a ton of Testimonials from happy readers.

28 >> This is Beirut

Laid back design with long in-depth articles about subjects ranging from being a foreigner in Beirut to anti sexual violence campaigns. The founder of the blog moved to Trinidad looking for adventure and we are sure she is famous there already.

29 >> Joe Solutions

Joe figured he dedicate his time blogging about Operative Systems for i-devices, such as iPhones, iPads, and all the other “i”s you need to have if you want to stay connected to the real world. And thanks to our friend Joe, it’s not going to be a problem upgrading those devices, because Joe is going to tell us how to do it.

30 >> Octavia Nasr

Don’t know so much about this woman. Is she famous? She’s a Lebanese living in America blogging personal political opinions. She is a veteran of the news industry and a self claimed leader in integrating social media with newsgathering and reporting, though she forgot to do any of this on her own blog.

31 >> The Closet Clause

New, but pretty active fashion blog by “Two friends, who share a common passion for fashion and the good life (with some other things in between).” Probably super cute. Tweet with us @TheClosetClause :*

32 >> Our Man in Beirut

The former banker and author of the book “Our man in Beirut” Nasri Atallah. A witty man, indeed, and he claims to like Scandinavians. That’s all it takes, really.

33 >> Project Cyan

Couldn’t figure out if this guy is Lebanese, but he’s located in Kuwait and writes about Lebanese design. He’s got some pretty cool stuff on his blog, such as an alphabet made out of Satellite images of Kuwait. Respect.

34 >> The Football Supernova

The Football Supernova is a blog containing articles posted as often as possible about as many different Football-related topics as possible.

35 >> Lebanon News: Under Rug Swept

Lebanese internationalist blogging “off-the-beaten-track” news about Lebanon from Dubai. Seems to be blogging mostly about things that looks like Beriut, which is kind of funny. A bit boring design on the blog, but it does the trick. (Would do with a pin-it button or two, if you know what I mean?)

36 >> 2famous.TV

Ehhem… say no more…

37 >> From Beirut with Funk

According to her bio, Liliane blogs in order not to explode, which explains her passion about blogging. This is good for us, as it gives us a little window to her mind. She is also somehow the godmother of blogging in Lebanon as she runs the Lebanon Aggregator site.

38 >> Qifa Nabki

Qifa Nabki is one of those super smart guys that is going to spend his whole life in school. In his blog he has these super smart articles about Lebanese politics.

39 >> Guy Meets World

Raise your voice. Rebel. Love. Enjoy sex. Get haters. Make a change. Guy Meets World is the most famous hipster blog in Lebanon. BeirutBoy, as the writer calls himself, is young, male, Lebanese, gay, marketer. He has something to say and he says it in his blog! The site is awesome with a lot of articles dating back to June 2010. Lots of fun content and loads of comments.

40 >> Razanghazzawi

A vegetarian U.S. born blogger from Syria that spent 10 years in Saudi Arabia and 5 in Lebanon. Writes in Arabic some times, but mostly in English. She gets pretty political, and is not scared of telling her opinions about the world, hence the massive “Revolution Syria” banner. Quite nice touch with the anarchist logo in the browser address line.

How we did it: We collected nearly 700 blogs that were listed at the Lebanon Aggregator site. Then we used Alexa to find the traffic ranking of the individual blogs. We use global data, which means that the blogs would have been ranked differently if we had based it on traffic from Lebanon. Many of the blogs produced no results, and were excluded from this list. Other blogs picked up artificially high ranking as they were hosted as parts of big sites, such as fance24.com. These blogs have been excluded. We also excluded all blogs that has no entries in 2012. Blogs that were companies selling products are also excluded. So are the blogs that are not related to Lebanon.

At the very end we would like to show you our web series Walk of Causes where we walked across Lebanon, from North to South. That’s how we got into blogging.

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2famous.TV - One of those sweet, sweet things that people do to entertain you. We started as two, but now we are more! We cover all sorts of cool stuff, primarily from the Middle East. Yes, you can contact us on: info + (@) + 2famous.TV