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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.
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