With the debut of Google’s new Nexus One smartphone (‘Web meets phone,’ says Google’s tagline) the mobile internet is here to stay. How are mobile web sites viewed on mobile phones? Whether the phones are smart or not, the answer is through the web browsers specifically made for mobile devices. On Apple’s iPhone, the current king of mobile browsing, Apple custom developed Safari Mobile. Biting on the heels of the iPhone is Google’s Android operating system that runs on the new Droid and Nexus One phones. Android currently uses Apple’s custom WebKit browser engine (essentially another Safari Mobile). However, Google may change that with a mobile version of their Chrome web browser which is gaining in overall market share.

Down the line there is Opera Mobile (one of the first mobile web browsers) which has been running on the Windows Mobile platform for ages and Opera Mini–a recent browser Opera has been developing for a wider not-so-smart phone market. Also on Windows Mobile is the hush-hush of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Mobile (where the screenshots are at the bottom). Last, but not least, Mozilla just released Firefox Mobile for the newly launched Nokia 900 smartphone. Between Microsoft, Apple, Google, Opera, and Mozilla the mobile browser market is almost saturated.

Well, it would be if each mobile browser were available for every phone. It is safe to say that Webkit is a browser, but not all Webkit browsers are the same. Similarly, Opera and Firefox mobile are used only on certain phones. It is safe to say that each browser caters to a certain smartphone (or not-so-smart phone) niche. The perennial web development website A List Apart cites a 2008 Nielsen Media Research report, by saying “mobile devices have increased traffic by an average of 13% across several popular websites.”

So is it wise to develop for mobile websites? Of course, especially since the internet traffic driven by phones has increased dramatically since 2008. While the mobile browser market may be divergent, the browsers are all capable of catering to a rapidly growing user base in a world increasingly driven by online content. The internet statistic website TechCrunchies predicts that by 2013 ”84% of this traffic shall be from web browsing.” Who knows, that might not even be with a phone. The future of mobile web browsing may have Google Eyes.