Smashing Magazine is currently taking a closer look at blog designs, then finding out what works and what doesn’t across fifty of the most popular blogs according to Technorati.

The Smashing team will likely use the results from thirty design problems that are encountered in every day design, and wants to pose solutions to them.  Today, the first article of possibly many in the series on blog design was published, with the following results found on those blogs.

It is noted that the results should not be used to design your blog, but simply represents the number of blogs that are using those examples in their design.

Some of the findings are listed below.

• large blogs require a multi-column layout solution (usually 3 columns suffice) (58%);
• layouts are usually centered (94%),
• layouts usually have a fixed weight (px-based) (92%),
• the width of the fixed layout varies between 951 and 1000px (56%),
• 58% of the overall site layout is used to display the main content,
• CSS-layouts are used (90%),

It comes with sad news from both the international media and bloggers alike that the world’s oldest blogger, Olive Riley, of Woy Woy, Australia, has died at the age of 108.

Her blog was run at AllAboutOlive.com.au (unavailable) and at World’s Oldest Blogger, in which her 74th post stated that she was ill and had moved into a nursing home.

Photo Copyright Adam Ward

She shared stories of her life - raising three children on her own, living through two world wars and the Depression, and working as a station cook.

Her blog, or “blob” as she referred to it, was set up in February with the help of a friend who wrote the entries.  

Riley died on Saturday, and would have been 109 in October.  She will be greatly missed, and has served as an inspiration to all bloggers and people looking to start a blog that blogging can start at any age.

“She had people communicating with her from as far away as Russia and America on a continual basis, not just once in a while.”

“What kept her going was the memories she had, and being able to recall those memories so strongly.”

[Source: Reuters and News.com.au]