According to Nielsen, mobile Internet use has grown from 5.8 million to 7.3 million between the second and third quarters of this year. This is a jump of 25% as compared to only a 3% growth in the number of users accessing the net through the PC, during the same time period.

7.3 million users represents just 12% of the total market. Many believe the number of mobile Internet users to be closer to 28%. However, the higher percentage includes one-off visitors who try the mobile Internet and never return, whereas Nielsen’s numbers could be excluding these users completely due to their research methodology.

The type of searches conducted through mobile phones are quite different from those conducted through the PC, and while Google is the most popular website used by PC users, mobile users prefer to use the following sites in order of priority:

1. BBC News
2. Google Search
3. BBC Weather
4. Facebook
5. Windows Live / Hotmail
6. BBC Sport
7. eBay
8. Yahoo! Mail
9. Sky Sports
10. Gmail

It was found that the mobile is mostly used to for instant information needs such as news, weather, sports. Information regarding entertainment and commerce was usually sought through desktops.

Interestingly, Google Search has only 23% reach among mobile device users, compared to 79% for desktop users, according to Nielsen.

Expectedly, the reports also revealed that the average age of the mobile Internet user was less than that of the PC user. While about 25% of handset mobile users were between 15 to 24 years of age, only 16% of PC users were in that age group. On the other hand, 23% of desktop users are over 55 years of age while 12% of mobile internet users are over 55 years, which many will find surprisingly high!

Mobile Internet users access the Web about 7 times a month on an average, and each session lasts for about 10 minutes.

Speaking to the BBC, Kent Ferguson, a senior analyst at Nielsen Online, says that the sudden spurt in the mobile Internet usage is due to a variety of factors. The introduction of flat rate tariffs by mobile operators and better networks are among them.

Also, Mobile manufacturing companies have introduced more user-friendly handsets that encourage consumers to access the Internet through their mobile. Buttons for direct access to Google and other popular social networks are placed on new phones to push this further.

The mobile phone company 3 launched a Facebook phone recently that allows users to easily access the social network as well as Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Last.fm by directly integrating the service into the phone.

While this application is certainly not new – Windows Mobile and Yahoo! Mobile already have similar services – it is reasonable to expect that due to the sheer popularity of Google and the simplicity of the process, a lot more iPhone users are now likely to use Google Search on their handsets.

Google will also combine this service with the iPhone’s GPS capability, to pinpoint the user’s location and the locations of various advertisers, reports Wired.com. However there is a downside to the voice search service. Search terms have been entered into the system in a typical American accent and hence the search procedure fails if the search words are spoken by people with different accents.

Given the diverse accents spoken in the U.K., the voice search function has quite “confused” the system. According to the Telegraph, when the word iPhone was spoken into the handset, using various British accents, the results ranged from Einstein, MySpace and Bonfire to Gorillas and Kitchen sinks!

A hilarious situation by itself, one might say, but one that was certainly never intended by Google.

When they discontinued the mobile video service, a spokesperson for 3 had said, “Mobile advertising remains an important part of our strategy. This change has created a great opportunity for a new supplier and we’ll be looking at options over the coming months.”

They now appear to have fulfilled that promise. 3 has now tied up with Mobix, which will deliver real-time in-video advertising, and 4^th Screen Advertising, which will be their sales partner, to restart their mobile video service before the end of the year.

The 3 million subscribers of 3 will now be able to receive personalised advertising from various brands, with the option of demographic targeting and frequency capping.

3 UK will begin with news, weather updates and movie reviews, and follow it up later with comedy music and cartoons. 3′s earlier entertainment and information services, mobile games, and full length music downloads will of course continue.

Videos will range from being free to costing up to 50 pence each, depending on the length and type.

3 UK’s Head of Portal Advertising, Neil Andrews says, “By allowing people access to video content at a consumer friendly price we can offer brands a potentially massive target audience.”

Mark Slade, Managing Director of 4^th Screen Advertising says, “Pre-roll video advertising is highly targeted, enabling campaigns to be far more effective, whilst reaching the right customer demographic at a time that suits.”

Read the full 3 UK official press release

It is open knowledge that Google has been in talks with Verizon for the same deal. Google wants Verizon to make Google the default search provider on all their mobile handsets.

Microsoft is probably making use of Google’s inattentiveness here – due to their recent preoccupation with the debacle of advertising on  Yahoo! – and is trying to woo Verizon away from Google. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Microsoft is offering much better terms to Verizon, by way of a higher percentage share of revenue and also a guarantee of considerably higher payments to Verizon.

According to the Wall Street Journal, if Microsoft succeeds in this attempt, it will not only compensate them to some extent for their failure to acquire Yahoo! earlier in the year, but will also help them to fight the search giant Google to some extent.

Verizon wireless, which is currently the second largest wireless carrier in The U.S.A, is of course taking its time to come to a conclusion as to whom they wish to tie up with, and will no doubt make the most of this opportunity.

The 3G industry has grown almost 80% in one year in the U.S. and now has 64.2 million subscribers, thanks to the availability of better networks and many new 3G-compatible handsets.

Italy and Spain still have better 3G penetration than the U.S. with 38.3% and 37.2% respectively, while Germany, France and U.K. have 23.9%, 17.1% and 27.6% penetration respectively.

A parallel survey conducted by comScore on the use of mobile search found that the popularity and frequency of mobile search has also gone up, both in the U.S. and Western Europe.

The growth of mobile search has been an impressive 68% and 38% in U.S. and Western Europe respectively, between June 2007 and June 2008, with the U.K. accounting for the highest mobile search penetration at 9.5% of all mobile subscribers, followed by the U.S. at 9.2% penetration.

According to Alistair Hill, analyst at comScore, it is not only the number of users using mobile search that has increased, but also the number of times each user uses it that has increased.

In Europe the number of people using mobile search at least once a week, has increased by 50% and in France and Spain it is 69% and 63% respectively. In the U.S. mobile search has more than doubled, thanks to better 3G penetration and the availability of 3G enabled handsets, as well as lowered tariffs.

Expectedly, it was found that Google was the most used engine for mobile search in all countries, followed by Yahoo! in Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S.