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182 Part 1 Introduction
people’s social lives, it’s only natural that social networking sites are working to
bridge the gap between the online and mobile worlds.
MySpace and Facebook are the top two social networking sites accessed via mobile
in both the US and the UK (see Table 3.8). MySpace attracts 3.7 million US and
440,000 UK mobile users. In America, Facebook’s mobile audience is about 2 million,
and in Britain, about 307,000. Number three is YouTube in the US, with 901,000 mobile
visitors and Bebo in the UK, with 288,000.
New Media Age (2008) reports how important the owner of MySpace considers
mobile access to social networks to be; he says: ‘over half of the site’s traffic will be
from mobile within five years. We’re pushing aggressively to enable us to capitalise on
that. We don’t see ourselves as a website: we’re a set of tools and a service for people
to connect with other people.’
Table 3.8 Social network access via mobile in Europe and the US
France Germany Italy Spain UK US
Almost every day 0.8% 0.5% 1.5% 0.7% 0.3% 0.7%
At least once each week 0.2% 0.4% 0.4% 0.6% 0.7% 1.1%
Once to three times 0.7% 1.0% 0.9% 1.0% 1.4% 1.8%
throughout the month
Ever in month 1.7% 1.9% 2.8% 2.3% 2.5% 3.5%
Source: MMetrics (2007)
Wi-Fi (‘wireless-fidelity’) mobile access
Wi-Fi (‘wireless ‘Wi-Fi’ is the shorthand often used to describe a high-speed wireless local-area network.
fidelity’) Most Wi-Fi networks use a standard protocol known as 802.11 a,b, g or n, which offers data
A high-speed wireless
local-area network rates of up to 300 Mbps, which is relatively fast compared to ADSL, although this depends
enabling wireless access on signal strength. Wi-Fi can be deployed in an office or home environment where it
to the Internet for mobile, removes the need for cabling and adds flexibility. However, it has attracted most attention
office and home users.
for its potential for offering wireless access in cities and towns without the need for a fixed
connection. The Intel Centrino mobile chip launched in 2003 offers facilities to make Wi-Fi
access easier for laptop users.
In 2002 some airports, cafés and hotels started offering Wi-Fi ‘hotspots’ which allowed
customers access to the Internet from their laptops or other mobile devices without the need
to connect using a wire. Such hotspots have now become widespread. For wireless local-area
networks (WLANs) additional hardware is needed. For example, home users need to buy a
wireless router (sometimes with firewall included) which connects to the Internet and shares
the Internet and local network access with all PCs in the house which contain wireless cards
to receive the signal. Other devices can also be used: for example music or video streamed
from the Internet can be played on appropriate devices. Transmission is limited in home
applications to around 100 m line-of-sight.