OSLO, NORWAY: India continues to remain one of the top 3 countries with the largest numbers of users utilizing Opera Mini to access the full Web, according to Opera Software's State of the Mobile Web report. While big destinations such as google.com and yahoo.com get significant attention and traffic on the mobile Web, Indians love to stay connected on the go, accessing social networking sites such as orkut.com and keeping up to date with friends on email with gmail.com. It is the smaller sites, however, that drive most ofthe visitors.

The Long Tail, a phrase coined by Chris Anderson in a Wired article and expanded upon in his book, "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More", illustrates the true value of the Web in that more people can access a variety of niche sites pertaining to their interests. Opera has long maintained that Web use on mobile devices would begin to conform to established usage trends as walled gardens fell and more people could access the full Web. Opera's research shows this trend is well underway.

"In most areas of the world, people are visiting a full range of Web sites," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "The evidence of the Long Tail on the mobile Web proves people will browse the Web on their phone just like they do on their home PCs, where the value of the Long Tail has been shown repeatedly. This is also exactly why the Web beats allmanner of other mobile platforms and our vision of One Web is becoming a reality."

Global highlights from the State of the Mobile Web, August 2008 report: