At this point, I think it's safe to say that netbooks are less of a fad and more of a trend. Netbooks have been enjoying exponential growth in both interest and sales since mid 2007, and show no signs of letting up. By the end of 2008, netbooks were making up 19% of laptop related queries on PriceGrabber, and are expected to sell over 35 million units this year.

So what does all this mean to web designers, content creators and developers? Like most emerging forms of computers and consumer electronics specifications and characteristics are still very much in flux, but there do seem to be a few common traits worth taking into consideration.

Screen size
The majority of netbooks currently on the market feature 9- or 10-inch (diagonal) widescreen format screens that have a resolution around 1024x600px with a web safe area around 1000x420px. Currently the majority of designers are targeting a minimum screen size of 1024x768px, which has a safe area of around 1000x590px. This not only reduces usable vertical space by 170px, it also changes the proportions of the display making them wider and narrower. In addition these screens are packing more pixels into a smaller physical package, making everything appear smaller.

So what can you do? First off, think about a layout that maximizes horizontal space like left-hand navigation controls instead of tabs, minimal or no site banner across the top of your page, and if you need to display ads look for vertical formats. You may also want to think about larger type, font size controls, or at least developing in a way that allows users to crank up font sizes on their end without completely destroying the layout.

Tiny trackpads
One of the main advantages to netbooks is their compact size which doesn’t leave much room for a trackpad. Most netbooks only have a tiny trackpad with left and right mouse buttons on the side.

So what can you do? Try to keep your navigation within a localized area to reduce mouse movement, or consider developing navigation system that takes advantage of the keyboard (for an example, check out Dropular).  

Processor and RAM
No one would argue that netbooks are the powerhouses of the computing world but they usually have enough to get the job done online. Most netbooks have around a 1.6ghz processor and about a 1gb of RAM, which is easily enough to support a browser and most plug-ins like flash and quicktime. That being said, they are only working with about half the power of your average laptop.

So what can you do? Test your site to make sure they don't tax the processor or require too much RAM.

Wrapping it all up
While netbooks currently only represent a small fraction of internet users, these devices seem to be setting a trend in terms of both form factor and internet usage. As Wi-Fi and cellular data become more and more ubiquitous and people move more and more of their digital lives online, we can expect to see the demand for portable lifestyle computers continue to rise.