Sharing Consumers’ Tastes in Cellphone Web Surfing
The New York Times, February 22, 2009
On Monday, a Denver-based start-up, Buzzwire, is unveiling a new site for cellphone users that will tap their collective preferences to create a guide to the best Web content for mobile users.
Buzzwire began in 2006 as a service to help wireless carriers and video producers play videos on mobile phones. With its new site, which users can reach on their mobile browsers at m.buzzwire.com, it hopes to expand its reach.
By 2012, “people will be browsing the Web more on their phones than on PCs or laptops,” said Greg Osberg, Buzzwire’s chief executive. “This is the first site 100 percent dedicated to the best of the mobile Web, with nothing to do with the PC Web.”
The number of people who surf the Internet on phones has doubled since 2006, according to Nielsen Mobile, to 40 million. Still, only 16 percent of people with cellphones use them to go online, and those that do visit an average of six sites a month, versus 100 on their computers.
Mr. Osberg wants to change that. He joined Buzzwire in November after leaving as president and worldwide publisher of Newsweek, where he revamped the magazine’s Web site and started its mobile site.
Similar to Digg, which lists stories recommended by Digg users, Buzzwire readers will pick stories they want to appear on the site by sending a text message or e-mail message or clicking on a Buzzwire button at the bottom of a story. Unlike Digg, Buzzwire has four editors who also cull articles from around the mobile Web.
