In October, 2008, ABI Research, the “connectivity” industry’s leading analysts, further demonstrated how MySpace and Facebook dominate the social networking sites, and the reported surprising new findings: Nearly half of the social networks’ users have accessed them through their mobile phones or Blackberries instead of their computers.  MySpace continued to lead the league: more than 70% of those who visited their pages via mobile phone went to MySpace.  About 60% visited their Facebook pages.  No other social networking site attracted even a fraction of the attention “the Big Two” drew.

This trend further reinforces web designers’ surmises that “engagement” and User Interface now determine web surfers’ preferences; and sites that offer greatest access through the most media will attract the greatest numbers of users and will command greatest user-loyalty.

Looking more carefully at patterns in mobile-phone users’ visits to their pages, analysts found they most often checked for comments in messages.  In other words, MySpace and Facebook now supplement regular voice and text messages among friends and families.  ABI Research Director Michael Wolf draws the natural conclusion: “Consumers do not want to recreate entirely new and separate social networks for mobile, but rather want to tap into their existing social network.”

You can link to your phone with one click on the MySpace or Facebook mobile page.  When you link your Alltel, AT&T, Boost Mobile, Cellular One/Dobson, Helio, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Virgin Mobile or Verizon Wireless phones to MySpace, you get instant—as in immediate, right here and right now—messages whenever someone posts a message, friend request, or comment.  Facebook offers approximately the same services.  If you have a camera phone, you can transmit photos and videos directly to MySpace, or you can view pictures and clips from your friends and family.