Weekend Web

Only one Web in the whole world, that’s the response techies would say. The point? No matter how you get connected to the internet, may it be computer or cellphone; you still do the same things on the Web and roughly the same sites and services.

David Witkowski didn’t get that memo. An executive at Silicon Valley, Witkowski behaves differently when using the PC for Internet and using cell phone. From his office pc, "I pretty much live on Google," Witkowski says. But from his Research In Motion Blackberry, the radio enthusiast spends a lot of time searching for gadgets for sale on Craigslist. He also checks local weather forecasts and airline schedules.

So welcome to the weekend Web. Here people are spending a lot of time online via wireless technology and using a different set of sites than during their work time.

"At Google, we see the majority of our desktop traffic during weekdays," says Matt Waddell, chief of staff for Google Mobile. "On mobile, the situation is completely reversed."

Mobile browsing surged 89% in the past year, with mobile page views increasing by 127%, according to research. The increase reflects growing availability of all-you-can eat data plans and increasingly expensive handheld devices such as the Apple iPhone.

Classified rule on Saturdays

PC is still common for Web surfing but research shows that when it occurs through mobile, much of it takes place on weekend. The number of visitors to the mobile Web surges up on Saturdays. The number surged to 4.17 million on Saturdays, an 8% increase from Fridays and 4% more than on the next busiest day, Monday, according to the study.

Like Witkowksi, many US cellphone users go to different sites via handheld devices. Many go to Craiglist, the local classified ad site. In March, users spent more time on Craiglist than on any site.

"Very few Web sites are essential local, ours is the exception," says Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster.

The Weather Channel gets the fourth-highest number of unique visits on the mobile Web, according to Nielsen Mobile, but its way down the rankings at No. 26 on the PC Web, according to Amazon's Alexa traffic monitoring service. Map provider MapQuest, owned by AOL, is the eighth-most visited mobile site, according to Neilsen, but ranks 35 on the PC Web, according to Alexa.