Social networking has longtime crossed the border between desktops and mobile devices, and as a result of that, people usually part of a social network also access the website through their mobile phones. ABI Research revealed in a recent survey that nearly half of the social network population uses mobile phones to access the social networking sites.

Furthermore, 70 percent of them have visited MySpace, while 67 percent of them have visited Facebook. By comparison, no other social networking site has managed to cross the 15 percent threshold among mobile visitors.

The fact that social networking became mobile should not come as a surprise, if we take into consideration the most recent studies which revealed that social networking population is growing, and so does the popularity of social networking sites. And just as in this most recent study, MySpace and Facebook proved to be the two most popular sites among users.

But how come the same two sites are just as popular on mobile networks? The answer is very simple, ABI explained. Consumers are not willing to start from scratch when using social networks for mobile, they want to use their existing social network at all times, and what better way to do that than though their mobile phones. This is why ABI Research’s study found the two social networking sites to be as popular on mobile networks as they are online.

“The social network is increasingly becoming a central hub for communications across online and mobile domains for many consumers,” ABI research director Michael Wolf explained. “To a degree, it allows them to centralize messaging, communication and even digital media consumption through a centralized property on various screens.” He also added that in the future, mobile social networking is likely to increase in popularity as the centralization of a consumer’s digital lifestyle through social networks continues.

The survey also revealed that at least 50 percent of the users use mobile social networks to check for comments and messages from friends, while 45 percent of them post status updates for their friends to be able to know what they’ve been up to.

Social networking sites have undeniably become an important part of people’s lives, and as a result of that, not only do companies use them for their workers, to create a better environment and increase productivity, but as CareerBuilder.com recently noted, employers use them to research information about job candidates.

The social networking phenomenon may have started in the United States, but it is now a global phenomenon, spreading all the way to Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The last two markets have also had the most impressive growth last year, of approximately 66 percent. To no surprise, Facebook remained the most popular, and last year alone increased its population by 153 percent on a global scale.