Long-standing stereotypes would have you believe that we Brits are obsessed by the weather. Despite having grown up in tropical climes and therefore being forever watchful of the skies outside my window lest I be reduced to a shivering wreck, I never really thought this to be true and thought it was only myself that took an extra-curricular interest in low-pressure weather fronts and the like.
Until now, that is.
Research published by Neilsen Online has shown that the BBC’s Weather website was the single most accessed site in the UK in the third quarter of 2008, with around 1.5 million users catching up on the latest weather-related developments via their mobile phones. With Neilsen claiming that there were 7.3mn mobile Internet users in Q308, this means that an astounding 21% of mobile Internet users are regularly watching the weather.
According to Neilsen, weather-watching mobile users were outnumbered only by visitors to the BBC News portal and the Google search engine, unsurprisingly. Social networking and email facilities also ranked highly, as did sports-related websites (hello, BBC Sport and SKY Sports websites).
Now, what I’d like to see is some research into the consumption of tea by the average mobile Internet browser. Now, there’s a British obsession I’ll never understand…
Tags: BBC, Google, mobile, mobile internet, Neilsen Online, SKY
