Just weeks after expanding their mostly college-focused age group to include corporate groups, Facebook recently announced plans to launch a feature that will enable users to view the site on their phones similar to the way they can see the site on a normal computer with an Internet connection.
Facebook already has a text-messaging service for its users that allows them to get information and send messages to each other, but this new feature will utilize a recently finished wireless application protocol (WAP) in order to give users the ability to browse the site on their phones. The company has been relatively silent on how exactly this will function.
This move will come in the face of growing uneasiness with the issues of privacy and security issues with popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. However, the fact that Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Cingular have all signed on to take part in this project could show that they are warming up to the idea of taking a plunge into the possibilities that the mobile industry provides for social networking.
Apart from Facebook, another beneficiary of this move could very well be MySpace, whose publicized privacy and security concerns have made the three major mobile carriers weary of converging the site with their mobile just yet. It is logical that if Facebook’s move into mobile proves to be successful and, just as importantly, safe, MySpace will garner the attention of the big three carriers and take advantage of the ever-increasing and appealing opportunity that awaits them.
MySpace currently has an exclusive mobile service deal with Helio, but this deal gives Helio exclusive rights for less than a year.
Source:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=
16849&hed=Facebook+Adds+Mobile+Internet
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