Opera Software has today published its report titled "State of the Mobile Web: First Quarter, 2008", and the findings are interesting to say the least.

Social networking stands supreme -- with almost 40 percent of mobile Web traffic worldwide headed to social networks. In terms of the 'number one' country for social networking on the mobile Web, there's a tie between USA and Indonesia with 63 percent of traffic in either country headed to social networks. At second position is South Africa, with 61 percent traffic headed to social networks. Whereas India stands third with 48.9 percent mobile Web traffic favoring social networks. The report also reveals the top ten Web sites in India as:

www.orkut.com

www.google.com

in.m.yahoo.com

www.peperonity.com

gallery.mobile9.com

www.mocospace.com

www.160by2.com

www.mobango.com

www.itsmy.com

www.indianrail.gov.in

The other important discovery is that the world is getting closer than ever before, to the concept of 'One Web', with full Web surfing comprising more than 77 percent of all mobile Web traffic and WAP and .mobi content accounting for the remaining 23 percent of traffic.

Apart from mobile Web browsing trends, the report affords a snapshot of mobile Web browsing preferences in ten countries, including Russia, Indonesia, China, USA, India, South Africa, Ukraine, UK, Germany, and Poland.

In Russia, almost 40 percent of mobile Web traffic is headed to entertainment, leisure, and sports sites. In both Indonesia and the US, 63 percent of mobile Web traffic is headed to social networks. In China, 55 percent of mobile Web traffic favors search engines and Web portal content. South Africa, besides being the number two country for social networking on the mobile Web, also has the second-highest email access on mobile devices. In Ukraine, more than 61 percent of traffic favors entertainment and sports with more than 43 percent traffic headed to WAP sites. UK remains the world leader in mobile email though the number is small. In Germany, more than 28 percent traffic favors entertainment and leisure with e-commerce accounting for more than 7 percent of traffic. In Poland, only 4 percent of traffic favors WAP or .mobi content.

Commenting on the report, Jon von Tetzchner, said, "The mobile Web is also the social Web. With social networks dominating Opera Mini's traffic, it is clear that people are using their mobile browsers as yet another communication tool on their phones."

The entire report can be found here.