Design buffs would tell you that three-column themes usually don’t work well for blogs. However, WebJillion took a peek at how Technorati’s top 100 blogs are laid out and found out that blogs with three-column themes are almost as popular as those with two-columns (hey, why didn’t we think of doing this before?). Also, the three-column blogs dominate the top ten!

Below is a list of most of the blogs on the Top 100 — minus a few that looked like spam, were duplicates, etc. — and of the 82 blogs I looked at 3 were 1-column, 35 were 2-column, 43 were 3-column and 1 was 4-columns or more.

Do remember that Technorati ranks blogs by inbound links, and not by traffic. Considering that many of the blogs in the top 100 list do, indeed, have not-so-readable designs, this says something about how people view the link-worthiness of a blog. Perhaps design does really take a back seat to content, when it comes to a site’s success. Either that or bloggers are fond of linking to sites for the sake of linking to the A-listers, but not really reading them regularly.

At any rate, design-wise, I still personally prefer the simple, uncluttered look of a two-column layout, where the focus is on the content rather than the miscellany on the sides. I’d consider three or more columns only if the main content would still be prominent enough to get the readers’ attention easily. Consider the minimalistic look of my personal blog compared to the information-stuffed design of my older one.