News organisations can now have a better understanding of their audience by analysing stats on visitor numbers by mobile device, including iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android and BlackBerry, and see photos of handsets they are less familiar with.

Google Analytics has added a new mobile section to provide audience data by operating system, service provider, connection speed and browser type; sites can see which country, town or city their mobile readers are in, plus they can look up traffic sources, landing pages and other information familiar to Google Analytics users.

Mobile is becoming an increasingly important source of traffic for news sites, with mobile browsing expected to overtake desktop browsing by 2013. It is therefore essential that news sites understand their audience and test out their site on all devices.

Google Analytics users can see what proportion of total web visits mobile makes up by clicking on visitors > mobile. You will need to ensure you are using the latest version of Google Analytics.

There are further details of the updates on the Google Analytics blog.

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