• May 2, 2008

The mobile Web expands the audience of many top Internet sites by 13%, according to a new study by the Nielsen Company. Mobile gives Web publishers a boost by bringing in users who don't visit their sites on home computers.

Categories that benefited the most from mobile sites were weather and entertainment, each increasing their reach by 22%, based on combined data drawn from Nielsen Online and Nielsen Mobile. Shopping sites, by contrast, were less likely to add new users because of greater duplication of the PC-based and mobile audiences.

"The data demonstrate that the mobile Internet can not only increase the frequency of visits to a Web site, but also grow the overall size of the pie," said Jeff Herrmann, vice president of Mobile Media at Nielsen Media, in a statement.

--Mark Walsh