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What makes a good blog? The definition is getting more refined.

Fifteen undergraduates in journalism, two grad students, and one professor -- who called themselves the Blue Plate -- set out to determine the top blogging newspapers in the U.S. among 100 major dailies.

The academic institution is New York University, Department of Journalism. The professor is blogger and press critic Jay Rosen. So you see the authority.

They found Houston Chronicle as the newspaper with the best blogs written by their journalists and readers. The rest were trailing very far behind. Read details here.

The research team set forth a yardstick for their academic work, initially loosely crafted in three simple measures:
1 ) Blogs that are very user friendly
2 ) Blogs that are of high quality content (writing, editing and images)
3 ) Blogs that have a grasp of blogging, and a sense of ease with the form

In the course of their research, the three measures developed into eight factors contributing towards good blogs, Allow me to adapt their findings to fit into qualities expectated out of individual bloggers:

1. Ease-of-use and clear navigation.

   Blogs must be easily reached off the home page of the site and it must be well-organized, user-friendly, and easy to navigate. Why? Bloggers must learn to value readers' time.

2. Currency.

   Don’t have blogs unless they are updated with the frequency required of a daily newspaper. Posts had to be recent and up to date.

3. Quality of writing, thinking and linking.

   By “writing”, it means blog writing. Remember, blog readers are not looking for regurgitated newspaper columns. The want to see sharper writing in these blogs, with an inherent awareness of its form. Least of all are readers looking for diary entries.

4. Voice.

   Closely related to writing quality is the presence of a personal voice. The most popular blogs in general (for instance, those found on Technorati or Blogline’s Top Blogs) are more often than not written by a blogger with a captivating voice. Whether they’re quirky, angry at the world, nerdy, incredibly intellectual, or thought-provoking, there has to be a distinct voice that makes the reader come back again and again.

5. Comments and reader participation.

   Rosen and his team generally, but not always, take a dim view of blogs without comments; and they aren’t impressed if a blog had comments enabled, but post after post drew zero. Good blogs must have a certain level of reader interaction. Tthe most emphasis is placed on the volume of comments, which is the best indicator of the overall general interest deserved by the post.

   Caveat: It isn't just about quantity. By sifting through the comments a reader will get a “sense of how conscious and open the bloggers are to feedback and criticism. Comments as a measure of openness is different from: “we’re open to comments.

6. Range and originality.

   Blogging is a chance to break out from a newspaper's normal categories: news, sports, business and leisure. Specialty blogs are often ranked higher, since anyone can think of “tech blog".

7. Explain what blogging is on your blogs page.

   Having supplementary blogs with no main page where all blogs could be accessed is bad. The readers would appreciate it if they were told what blogs and blogging were all about. Better still, offer an explanation of blogging and what the blogger hope to gain from including it will help convey the message more easily.

8. Show commitment!

   It show how serious of an effort did the blogger make to enter into the blog world. Not only do blogs have to be active, offer permalinks, categories, archives, an RSS feed, and comments, but the blogs also have to be participatory and have a coherent sense of the author’s voice. That’s being serious.

Who says bloggers are a bunch of nothing-better-to-dos?