People who use their cell phones to surf the Web tend to steer to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook ahead of news, maps or weather, mobile browser company Opera says. The Norway-based software firm - which says its mobile browser, Opera Mini, is the world's most popular - studied the Internet habits of more than 44 million Opera Mini users worldwide and reports there are major differences in how people use the mobile Web. Opera says it looked at aggregated data. Worldwide, some 40 percent of mobile Web traffic heads to social networks and one-fourth to content portals or search engines, Opera said. In the United States, South Africa and Indonesia, 60 percent of mobile Web traffic clicks lead to social networks.

Here are other patterns the company's research revealed: Russian and Ukrainian users flock to entertainment and sports sites; Chinese choose search engines first; and Brits check e-mail more than others, while Germans shop the most on the mobile Web - though both uses remain small.

Chief executive Jon von Tetzchner said the company has its highest market shares in Russia, Ukraine and Indonesia where an inexpensive cell phone may be the only form of Web access for many people. Opera attracts between 20 percent and 25 percent of mobile Web users in Russia, which is its biggest market.

He said the first programs to offer Web services on phones - wireless application protocol or WAP browsers - "did a lot of damage" because their stripped-down Web access and focus on text information like news deterred many possible mobile Web users.

That is changing as programs like Opera's Mini browser compress full Web sites for mobile use and users are now increasingly checking out the same kind of content on their phones that they would from a desktop computer.

"It really is one Web, with people using whichever device they choose to connect to the Internet," von Tetzchner said.

Opera says "full Web surfing" now makes up some 77 percent of all mobile Web traffic, squeezing out WAP and .mobi services.

Opera Mini was used by 11.9 million people in March, the company said. It is more widely used than Apple Inc. s Safari for the iPhone and proprietary software on Nokia phones and BlackBerry devices from Research in Motion Ltd. p> ---

On The Net: http://www.opera.com/mobile_report/