OPEN

Phew, major brands seem to have given the Second Life launches a break this week and returned their attention to the relatively more mainstream social media attraction of social networks.

After E4 decided to use Big Brother as social network bait for its new E4 branded social network, I note Vodafone’s announcement that it will make it easier for customers of its mobile services access social media services.

A good step forward for the company, moving on perhaps from the walled garden content approach that was almost universal among operators until recently and that almost certainly slowed uptake of mobile services by a wider demographic.

Social media bitesize services on the move are great. Bloglines and Flickr have been my only really useful mobile social media apps that I’ve used so far. I use them differently to the desktop versions of the apps – for reading and collecting content, rather than creating or commenting – but they’re great 

Vodafone has spotted that this is a way that people will want to use the web all the time on the move, in probably exactly these ways. In fact the CEO, Arun Sarin is extremely confident about earning literally billions from social media:

Sarin says social networking, mobile advertising, mobile video, and other advanced applications are on the rise. “We expect these services to generate 10% of our revenue within three or four years,” he says. Vodafone generated $29.4 billion in revenue and $6.6 billion in profit during the first half of the year, beating analyst forecasts.

: : I also love the fantastic Google Maps for mobile which I put to good use on an epic road trip to the North yesterday). Ooh, ooh – and mobile Gmail. I don’t send mails but its great for keeping an eye out for mails and screening comments to Open.