Technewsworld reports on new research that indicates social networking is poised to go mobile. I wrote about this possibility three and a half years ago.

Social networking is going mobile and is poised for spectacular growth over the next five years, according to a research report released Monday.

The report from ABI Research predicts that mobile social communities will be attracting members in swarms, more than tripling in size worldwide from some 50 million this year to 174 million by 2011.

“The rapid rise of online social communities — gathering places such as MySpace Latest News about MySpace and Facebook — has done more than bring the ‘pen pal’ concept into the 21st century,” ABI Vice President of Research Clint Wheelock said. “It has created a new paradigm for personal networking.

“In a logical progression,” he continued, “many social communities are now based on the mobile phone and other portable wireless devices instead of — or as well as — the PC. Such mobile social communities extend the reach of electronic social interaction to millions of people who don’t have regular or easy access to computers.”