The recommended blogging platform depends on what you want. There are many different blogging platform that you can use to blog. It depends on you, the webmaster to choose what best fits your needs. There is a list of weblogs at wikipedia. Among all the blogging platforms, some platforms needs you to download and install, some are open source and free, some are proprietary software that may be licensed for a fee or have versions available free of charge.
From the choice of platform of the top 100 blogs, you will see that WordPress is the most used platform. Not only with the A-list bloggers, wordpress is the most used platform in the blogosphere overall.
Why does the A-list bloggers use their platform. I don’t know why, but I can speak from my experience with blogger, wordpress.com, wordpress.org.
1. Blogger – This is a free blogging service owned by Google. It is easy to use. This is the recommended blogging platform to start with if you are looking for a free service to get going on quickly and easily. Most bloggers start with this one to get a feel of how to blog on a software. But it has its disadvantages. One of them is that it doesn’t allow you to customize your blog very much. Register with Blogger.
2. WordPress.org – This is a free open source platform that needs to be hosted on your server. At first, it seems complicated to use, but gradually it would become easy. WordPress allows you to do anything you want. You can customize it to your taste. The only major disadvantage is that it needs constant update to keep up with security issues. Download and install WordPress
3. WordPress.com – This is the free version of wordpress.org that is easier to use but doesn’t have the full functionality. It is updated constantly by the wordpress team. The only disadvantage is that it doesn’t allow Javascript code. You need javascript code to run adsense, analytics, and some affiliate links. Get wordpress.com blog.
I recommend using hosted wordpress.org if you can afford a webhost. You just have to be sure to update it often. But for beginners, blogger is recommended to get a feel of the blogging waters.