TIME.com's First Annual Blog Index

TechCrunch is the quintessential insider blog: people read it because they believe other people read it and don't want to be left behind. Silicon Valley lawyer and entrepreneur Michael Arrington launched TechCrunch in 2005 as a blog about dotcom start-ups, but it quickly metastasized into a powerful and influential arbiter of what's hot and what's not in technology investing. The site is now ranked the third-most popular blog in the world by Technorati, and has spawned dozens of rivals. Despite Arrington's combativeness and numerous alleged conflicts of interest as an investor himself (or in some ways because of those qualities), TechCrunch is still the place folks chasing the Internet dream end up. Now, one critical challenge looms: can TechCrunch survive in a down market?

Sample TechCrunch Post: A new service, Sniffu, has developed a new cell service that gives people an electronic map showing the location of their friends. The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (Sniff) can be accessed by Facebook or cell phone and is already popular in Scandinavia. Sniff is run by Useful Networks, which is owned by Liberty Media.