Only about 14 percent of mobile phone users surf the web with their phones but by next year researchers expect the practice to hit the mainstream. Already these so-called m-surfers (mobile surfers) are having an impact on web traffic to certain sites. A new study by Nielsen’s TotalWeb, which integrates data from Nielsen Mobile and Nielsen, tallied the total unduplicated, unique audience for more than 200 web sites and found that m-surfing lifts those numbers by an average of 13 percent. The most popular web sites being accessed via cell phone are weather and entertainment sites, which get a 22 percent boost from mobile, meaning many people who don’t look at these sites at home are doing so on the go. On the other hand, shopping sites see little lift, indicating a large overlap between mobile and home PC audiences. TotalWeb predicts that companies with large swaths of mobile web traffic may soon begin designing specialty cell sites that load more quickly and have a more user-friendly web interface, as well as allow for new and different advertising options. Nic Covey, director of insights at Nielsen Mobile, talks to Media Life about the most popular m-surfing sites, why shopping sites get little lift, and why next year will be a big one for mobile web surfing.

What did you find most interesting or most surprising about this study?
 
I was impressed by the extent to which mobile increases the overall audience size for many leading sites. I knew there would be lift, but it’s very interesting to think that mobile traffic can really grow the audience pie for even major internet brands.

What web sites see the greatest boost from mobile internet use and why?
 
We see double-digit audience lift percentages in the weather and entertainment categories, games, too; even email.

Weather is most likely tops because it’s a category of information for which we know people rely on a variety of sources. We see lift when there are people accessing sites on their phone and not on their home PC -- which leads me to believe there are a number of folks who are getting their weather information through newspapers, TV and radio at home, but relying on the web while they’re away. It makes sense.

Entertainment and games make sense, too. As leisure activities, these are categories that users may not have time to frequent once they get home, but as a time filler in other parts of the day they make complete sense.
 

You found that shopping sites have mostly a duplicated mobile audience, meaning they are also looking at these sites on their home PCs. Why is that and what other categories does that apply to?
 
Shopping sites tend to have very little lift from mobile; this includes sites such as Amazon.com and eBay. Consumers are still warming to the idea of purchasing items directly from their phone, so for now, a lot of m-commerce may be m-window shopping for things you’ll later buy over your home PC or, in the case of eBay, monitoring bids that you probably placed from a fixed internet point.
 

Do you think we will start to see more mobile-optimized sites or separate versions of sites for mobile users? What areas would benefit by doing this?
 
Web sites stand to benefit a great deal from mobilizing their web sites. For leading channels it’d be foolish not to. As mobile internet use continues to expand, users are in a great period of experimentation, wondering if this site or that has caught up with the times.

When they log on to their favorite website over their PDA and have a clumsy, if not frustrating, experience, it not only hurts that channel’s chances of getting their return mobile visits, but it damages the relationship that brand has with the consumer.

I’m hard-pressed to think of a category that shouldn’t be doing this -- entertainment, travel, movies, news, banking, maps, search, most web sites that are worth my time at home could have at least some application when I’m on the go.

It’s still a relatively small percentage of people using their phones to surf the web. When will we see this enter the mainstream?
 
The beautiful thing about the mobile market is that -- unlike television, for example -- users are upgrading their equipment every two years.

Device and network capabilities are expanding and, at the same time, handsets such as the iPhone are driving consumer awareness around advanced capabilities. Increased capability plus increased awareness will naturally lead to usage.

Add to that that carriers are improving business models around what consumers will pay for mobile data services and I’m confident mobile internet will be mainstream, if not ubiquitous, by the end of 2009.
 

What are the main differences between surfing habits of those on a PC and those on a mobile?
 
Right now mobile internet users don’t go to the same range of web sites in terms of numbers.

A lot of that has to do with the amount of time they surf in a given session, but some of that can be attributed to the need for even more mobile web content. Understandably, mobile web users aren’t surfing for hours at a time, either. That means that publishers need to optimize the experience for even quicker navigation. A mobile web user may not have the patience for seven clicks to their desired ends.

What does this study mean for media buyers and planners trying to get their client's message in front of mobile users?
 
TotalWeb means that media buyers can, for the first time, understand the incremental value of a site’s mobile companion. Data on mobile lift will help planners understand whether -- by also partnering with the web version of a site -- they will earn added reach or added frequency.

For many web sites, mobile actually means added eyeballs from a coveted early-adopter segment. Now buyers can see the total web and know exactly which sites offer that added value.