A recent BusinessWeek article providing analysis on the mobile web dubbed it the Weekend Web. I think this is an interesting and somewhat apt nickname, although I’m not sure it really catches the most important concepts driving mobile web adoption. It’s somewhat natural to see mobile web usage spike on the weekend. After all, the most hardcore web users are likely to work in jobs that keep them behind a computer screen during office hours. And who would want to surf on a slower cell phone connection than their office’s broadband?
So, what else can we see driving mobile web growth? Here are the top 5 mobile web sites viewed in the US per M:Metrix are Craigslist, Ebay, Myspace, Facebook and Go.com.
What does this tell us about mobile web users?
1. The first two sites are both classified sites and the next two are social networks. To me, Craigslist almost counts as a social network site as well because of their insanely popular personals section.
2. Social experiences are the real draw. Users aren’t interested enough in their stocks and bonds on the weekend. They would much rather check their friends’ Facebook status and feel interconnected.
3. We’re flocking to sites that we know instead of discovering content via search. This makes some sense to me- why would you want to run a search on your phone when there’s a good chance it will take you to a non-mobile friendly site?
3. We use the sites that have excellent mobile web interfaces. With such a small window to look at, usability and layout are key.
4. Yes, people want to get stuff online, but they’re getting stuff in a socially oriented way. This is likely because these users are more socially-oriented and probably has something to do with the fact that mobile commerce is teh suck.
Go.com is an interesting one. They’re a Disney site that publishes box office info, parenting tips and entertainment news? I have no clue on that one… maybe they’re the upcoming mobile zeitgeist. Do you surf Go.com and for what?
I’m not sure if the mobile web is the weekend web, but it’s definitely a newly emerging powerhouse. As there are more users and more sites, I think that the mobile web will continue to grow in importance for users and publishers who want to connect a community around their site.
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[...] browser plugins, we could see mobile video usage skyrocket among users that are primarily accessing classifieds and social networking sites. Flash will also enable viewers to better surf their favorite streaming programs and video sharing [...]
[...] Many of the same companies are dominating the mobile web as the web at large, with Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft taking the top 3 spots. This is likely due to the huge pull of webmail in terms of pageviews, along with other popular sites like Youtube and Flickr. This is surprising though, considering the fact that Craigslist, eBay, Facebook and Myspace are the top 3 individual mobile web sites. [...]