What is the best blogging tool/platform to use on on a hosted site like GoDaddy?

Short answer: I use tumblr, and their embeddable javascript widget.

Long answer:

If GoDaddy is supplying you with the actual webspace and bandwidth, and not just the domain registration, AND supplying you with access to some sort of database as well, you've got lots of options. It mostly depends on how complex you want to get with it, and how patient you are.

Wordpress is probably the #1 (based solely on the fact that I just said so) used blogging platform, either hosted at wordpress.com or installed on your own web server.

Movable Type has been around for a long time and is used by all sorts of sites. I don't believe it is free anymore, but may have a "for personal use, one blog only" sort of license.

Drupal is recent and powerful. I know a few people who swear by it (and at it, sometimes).

Indexibit is an interesting choice ,and is geared more towards portfolios, but I have an idea for a silly project that I may use this for.

If you want to go ultra-minimal and don't want to have to mess around with a database, and templates, and configuration, you may want to use one of the solutions below:

I used Blosxom for a while, as a shell script that would take text files I'd add to a particular directory, tack on a header and a footer, and save them as html files in another directory. I could include HTML in a post, and it would just work, no special BBcode or Markdown required. This meant I'd have to do work via the shell, however and wasn't very convenient. It was simple though, and I eschew features in favor of simplicity as often as possible.

But I got an iPhone, and found myself jealous of people who could post items from that device. Wordpress has a mobile app, but I somehow screwed up installing Wordpress, even taking into account that my webhost has an automatic-install script they set up, and which is used successfully all the time. Worst than my ineptitude setting it up though, was the fact that I'd have to muck about with permissions and templates and keep the software updated for security purposes, and I just didn't want something that felt like work. Plus, at the time, there were no really minimal templates I was happy with (I just wanted a logo/title for the page, and a column of text, no links on the side, no blogroll, no nothing).

Enter Tumblr. At first, I was going to just direct my DNS for my domain to point to a URL on their site, but, then I discovered they have a little line of javascript which will let you embed your tumblog like so:

script type="text/javascript" src="http://nameofthepage.tumblr.com/js"></script>

where "nameofthepage" is the name of your tumblr page.

Then, in their help documentation, they have a list of what the CSS Class and ID names of all the little bits are, so you can just create a CSS file hosted at godaddy and call it up in the index file for your page.

Tumblr also has a lot of social tools and lets you "follow" people and be followed like twitter, if you are so inclined. I was not.

The Tumblr iPhone app lets me post anything that the tumblr webpage lets me post, so it's great for taking a snapshot of something stupid and posting it from wherever I am.

Drawbacks to tumblr: it is not as easy to get listed in google, apparently. I didn't care so much about that, but if you do, then you may want to check out wordpress or one of the others.

+1 for WordPress and Tumblr. I personally can't stand MovableType. There is also Squarespace and Kontain.