Two recent studies indicate how social networking over mobile devices is going to grow into one of the online world’s most significant activities.

Opera’s research about the use of their mobile browser is a bit misleading however because it appears to be from those who use the browser on their phones - obviously a group much more likely than others to participate in social networking:

Select global highlights from the first quarter report:

One Web will triumph over WAP content: Full Web surfing comprises more than 77% of all traffic. WAP content still generates the remaining 23% of traffic. WAP percentages have declined somewhat as more consumers realize Opera Mini can access rich Web content.

Neilsen has a far more statistically valid approach to answering the question of how mobile and social will intersect. Their study shows that only 1.6% of US mobile users access social networking online but note that this represents over 4,000,000 mobile users and that:

A growing number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide are taking online social networking to the streets…

Even with some indications that Facebook traffic has levelled off it remains clear that social networking will remain profoundly important in the online world, and that mobile access will increase to the point it becomes the way most people will access the internet around the world. The importance of this intersection of social and mobile cannot be overestimated.