Websites have long been established as an information and support portal for smokers looking to quit, but now cell phones and social-networking sites also are being thrown in the mix, Reuters reported Oct. 11.

Programs like Colorado's State Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership (STEPP), for example, send personalized messages to smokers' cell phones to remind them to abstain from smoking. Information gleaned from detailed questionnaires is used to create messages that hit home with individual smokers. "Immediacy is one of the most critical parts of the program," said Jodi Kopke, media director at STEPP. "For someone to say they smoke at 7 a.m., 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. and then to get a message right as they are about to get up and light up, that is so powerful."

STEPP's FixNixer cellphone messaging system is tied to an Internet quit program. QuitNet, one of the most successful Internet-based smoking-cessation programs, also is considering a messaging component. "That is the next wave, to really blend user-generated pieces of the Web site," said QuitNet vice president Jim Purvis.

QuitNet, which already calculates for smokers how much money they save by abstaining, could expand the concept through tailored messaging. "If we know you like to golf, for example, we'll put up pictures of people who are outdoors or playing golf," Purvis said. "The more a person comes back to the site, the more positively it is correlated that those people will be successful initially and able to maintain their quit."

Support groups for smokers also have been established on social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.