According to a recent
Businessweek article, when Americans use their mobile phones to go online, they visit different sites than when they surf from their computers.
The mobile web is fast becoming what the magazine has dubbed “the weekend web.” Over the weekend, mobile web traffic shoots up as more people turn to their phone to access information. They’re also surfing to much different sites, where the emphasis is on fun and planning around it, with weather, entertainment, games, and music emerging as the fastest-growing mobile web categories, according to comScore (
NSDQ: SCOR).
M:Metrics (which comScore
announced it was buying this week), reported in March that Craigslist, eBay, MySpace, Facebook, and Disney’s Go were the top 5 mobile web destinations. In comparison, the fastest growing PC web site categories are pharmacies, food, cosmetics, and job searches.
I'm not shocked by the fact that people use the "mobile web" more on the weekend but I do think that the difference in sites people are visiting is a temporary phenomenon. Over time, there will be less and less difference between website usage from the desktop and the mobile device.
What's my justification?
Browsing on most phones is still very clunky so most of the browsing being done on weekends is out of necessity because people are away from their PCs but they still need to get directions, check the weather, etc. But, I for one, don't visit different sites from my desktop on the weekend than I do during the week. I still have my 10-15 "go-to" sites that I visit every day, Monday-Sunday. I just don't see how that will be different once my primary access point to the Internet will be my mobile device.
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