Buzzwire launches “Digg-esque” site for mobile content

The New York Times reported earlier this week about “the first site 100 percent dedicated to the best of the mobile Web, with nothing to do with the PC Web,” according to Greg Osberg, chief executive of Buzzwire.

The Denver, USA-based start-up launched a site on Monday that it describes as being the Digg for the mobile web. According to the report, the site will tap cell phone users’ collective preferences to create a guide to the best Web content for mobile users. Unlike Digg however, the site will also have four editors to supplement the user generated content.

Readers (browsers?) can scan the 20 most popular stories; navigate by topic, such as the Academy Awards, politics or health; or see the most recent links. They can also keep a list of stories they want to read later and, à la Twitter, follow their friends to see what they are reading and watching, says the report.

You can read the report here.

These are some of the interesting stats and predictions around the mobile web that emerge from the article:

By 2012, people will be browsing the Web more on their phones than on PCs or laptops – Greg Osberg, Buzzwire

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.

Let’s compare that to South Africa, where Matthew Buckland cites a Vodacom report that indicates that twice as many South Africans access the Internet via mobile vs traditional desktop access. I know this is not an apples with apples comparison with the previous stat, but my hunch is that SA is well in the lead of the field when it comes to mobile Internet access. This is backed up later in Matthew’s post where he mentions that SA is the 6th highest user of the Opera Mobile browser, ahead of both the US and China.

Buzzwire’s mobile site is here: m.buzzwire.com and you can check out the somewhat cheesy video here.