This "21st Century Moms Report" states that the number of mothers using social networks has risen from 11 percent to 63 percent since 2006. And there's good news for brands who are using the same networks. According to the BabyCenter press release, "Forty-four percent [of moms on the social web] use social media for word-of-mouth recommendations on brands and products, and 73 percent feel they find trustworthy information about products and services."

As far as hardware is concerned, almost all moms - 91 percent - say they never leave home without a mobile device. More than half say they have replaced traditional photo albums with online photo-sharing services. And moms are also the primary console gamers in the household after the birth of a first or second child.

O2 and Toshiba chose Nimbuzz as its social messaging partner in Germany. Accessed via a central icon on the home screen the fast, reliable and easy to use app integrates seamlessly onto the handset and the always on nature of Nimbuzz suits today’s “hyper-connected” digital lifestyle. The three companies worked closely together to deliver lifestyle communications features on the Toshiba TG01 for contacting all of your friends across multiple networks from one place. Integrating Nimbuzz achieves this goal thanks to the inclusion of local social networks such as StudiVZ in the client alongside all of the major global communities.

Today, in this the 21st Century, our social lives have been thoroughly extended into the digital realm of cyber space. Sure we still have to socialize... once in a awhile, to have a more personal feel but these days it’s the Social Networker that probably get’s more ‘brownie’ points than those able to reach a real live physically ‘visible’ audience. In my opinion it’s becoming a rather impersonal way of communication and I’d rather go out and meet people instead of sending messages or notes, or ‘Posting’ on walls etc. What exactly did we do before the Social Networks came around?

Sadly, not much has changed. The Facebook mayhem was substituted by Twitter. The hype, the same, if not worse. Twitter is three years old and get-rich-quick e-books are abound. People now sell themselves to businesses as Twitter experts (Seriously). Tech crazy TechCrunch is smitten by it and Twitter even graced the front page of Time Magazine (Seriously).

People all over the world are dancing at its feet. No…wait a minute…that’s a lie. For all the online craziness the Twitter population is anything but mainstream. Hard to believe, yet most, yes most people I know, either have no inkling of what Twitter is, or worse, have absolutely no desire to dabble in it. And just when the Twitterati think they have digested enough bad news for a day, damning evidence proves that it’s hardly a retaining concept too.

One of the biggest assets of a mobile phone is its ability to gather location co-ordinates which adds context to a situation. I have talked about mobile social networking and location in my previous posts. In this post, I am going to talk about two of my favorite mobile applications that have become more relevant due to context. There purpose here is to illustrate how mobile enhances the experience of social networking as compared to that on PC and why mobile social networking is likely to be successful in future:

Toshiba’s TG01 Windows Mobile smartphone is almost ready to launch in Germany, and a few more details regarding the slimline handset are emerging. Not only have O2 and Toshiba partnered with Nimbuzz to put their cross-platform social networking app on the TG01, but USB Host support has been confirmed.

Goojet, a provider of mobile social networking services, has raised $8.4 million in its second round of venture capital financing, led by new investor Orkos Capital.

Previous backers Partech International, Elaia Partners and IRDI also participated in the investment round.

Paris-based Goojet provides tools to help users create personalized mobile home pages, as well as free mobile messaging with embeddable widgets.

In the past few months, I've reconnected with friends from kindergarten through college and beyond. I've discovered thought-provoking online articles and videos I probably wouldn't have found on my own. I've also read meaningless updates from friends, such as "I'm getting in the hot tub," or "just received a special gift from a special friend." And I've done it all through Facebook--the social networking phenomenon where Top Five lists reign, long-lost friends are reunited, and, inevitably, countless hours are consumed.

Thanks to unlimited data plans and the growth in smartphone adoption, mobile Web browsing is finally getting its day in the sun. During last week's Webinar, "Making a better mobile browser," hosted by FierceWireless and sponsored by ByteMobile, Mark Donovan of Comscore praised U.S. operators for offering unlimited data plans that encourage and support mobile browsing and he also noted the close tie between social networking and browsing.

Donovan said social networking sites are seeing some of the greatest traffic from those who browse on their phones. People are using their mobile phones to connect to Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. "There is outstanding growth in this category," Donovan said. "Social networking is designed to connect people and that really gets to the heart of what mobile phones do best."

A new social-networking mobile phone that uses Google software has been launched that integrates online-sharing sites Twitter and Facebook and Flickr.

'The Hero' is made by Taiwanese firm HTC and will go on sale next month.

It is operated using Android, which is the world’s first ‘open-source’ operating system for mobile devices.

As the world's leading phone maker, Nokia is now moving forward to go beyond cell phones and jump into the Internet services bandwagon. The Finnish phone manufacturer realized that they couldn't rely on handsets anymore, but should start to be an Internet company by offering content, solution and services.

The idea is pretty simple. It's impossible to announce new handsets every day, but they - by working closely with the developers, content providers and partners - could offer a bunch of new applications, contents and services every single day.

Nokia first unveiled the ambitious plan two years ago, marking that it will compete more directly with Google, Apple and Microsoft. The plan centers on Ovi, the company's new Internet services brand name. The Nokia's "umbrella concept" Internet service enables consumers to access their existing social network, blogs, contents and communities from a single location. Ovi is the Finnish word for "door," meaning that Nokia doors to the Web.

According to Nokia president and chief executive officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Ovi represents Nokia's vision in combining the Internet and mobility, as the number one mobile device company in the world. "Looking into the future, we will deliver great devices, combined with compelling experiences and services, to make it easy for people to unlock the potential of the Internet."

Sense Networks, which describes itself as a company that ?indexes the real world using real-time and historic location data for predictive analytics,? has raised $6 million in funding. Venturebeat.com, citing an unnamed source, reports that semiconductor giant Intel (NSDQ: INTC) led the deal, after beating out Sequoia, who wanted Sense Networks to only take their money. No word on terms of the deal, and no comment from Intel or Sequoia over the investment.

When we first came up with the idea for Weebiz , a network of companies and not people, we were surprised that no one had thought of it before. All of those many networks that are available had taken their own path in finding their niche. How come no one had thought about this incredibly vast segment: businesses? Sure, directories are plenty, but those aren’t really networks

Yesterday I published a post about Nokia’s Calling All Innovators contest and ended the editorial by suggesting that anyone entering should also drop me a note and do a post.

I’m willing to bet that you will be reaching for the download button in a few moments.

First off all, the obligatory screenshot:

Human beings have always lived in communities and have extended the communities whenever they got an opportunity to do so. Internet was a great enabler for communities and people started to network with long lost friends and found new friends. Now mobile has unique features that can extend this experience for communities

Always on and always in pocket – Mobile is a ubiquitous personal device and is hence the best medium of access for social networking. The updates can be sent and received on the go. When accessing the internet on PC, one is accessing the information about some past event and not real time. In contrast, with mobile phone one can take part in the event, capture it, provide comments and share all this with others. Mobile phone therefore provides richer social interaction. Twitter is a shining example of being part of the event. During the Mumbai terrorist attack, the Twitter updates were faster than the media updates which increased its popularity in India.

Consumer usage of the mobile web for social networking purposes will continue to grow in the future, it has been predicted.

Speaking at a board meeting in Seoul, GSM Association chief executive Robert Conway said that the current popularity of mobile social networking is just "the tip of an iceberg of usage of social networking via mobile".

He attributed this to the increasing number of advanced smartphones enabling a more PC-like web browsing experience coming on to the market.

Last month, mobile operator Orange released figures showing that there had been a 129 per cent increase in the number of social network page impressions made by its mobile internet customers in the three months to February 2009.

You may have heard that ShoZu is going from “free” to “fee.” At the Mobile 2.0 Europe 2009 show here, ShoZu, the award-winning social media hub, announced more details about its corporate strategy, including leveraging the rapidly growing selection of mobile application stores to distribute and charge for the ShoZu application. The updated version of the ShoZu app is currently available through Apple’s iTunes application store.

Distribution through additional stores such as Nokia’s Ovi, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry App World and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Marketplace will be announced.

Samsung Mobile announced today that Orange is the first UK network to launch the Samsung S5600. Available immediately, the new handset is perfect for social networkers on the move and available in black, pink and white for the latest in touchscreen innovation.

“The Samsung S5600 offers a truly stylish design and an intuitive user interface for the most image conscious mobile users.” said Mark Mitchinson, Vice President of Samsung Mobile UK and Ireland. “For social networking enthusiasts the S5600’s widget and full internet browsing capabilities mean they will never miss out on a status update or the latest photos ever again.”

CENTRL IS A smart-phone application that lets you see which of your Facebook friends are around. You can spot nearby buddies on a screen-based map and send them instant messages. You can even mark a map location to let them know about a good restaurant or nightclub. Retailers can send you a coupon if you're near. And you can share that coupon with your friends.

The award-winning GyPSii location aware mobile social networking application has found a new home: on Apple’s iPhone application store.

From today, iPhone owners can download GyPSii directly from the popular iPhone App store and immediately start creating and sharing “geotagged” content in real time with friends, family, and the growing global community of GyPSii members. The places and experiences users create then become true Internet-searchable destinations, available for friends and communities to share and comment on, not only in GyPSii, but also across other social media such as Facebook and Twitter.