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A major question facing mobile developers today is how to distribute their content — where, in what form, and monetized in what way? Custom-built applications using Java, BREW and other languages, while once the norm, are giving way to mobile Internet deployments. But will the mobile device, like the home computer, become dominated by the web browser and advertising?

Yes and no, the panelists said at today’s “Mobile vs. Web” talk at MobileBeat, moderated by Om Malik of GigaOmni Media. The general consensus seemed to be that applications are being squeezed out by the greater accessibility of the web. “If you’re trying to address a broad audience and you’re choosing between Java and mobile web, at this point I’d say you’re crazy to do Java,” said Skydeck’s Jason Devitt.

There’s a hitch: Applications are favored by many because they’re more easily used to charge monthly fees. “You’d be amazed at how many people are willing to pay $2-3 per month for a premium application,” Myspace’s Brandon Lucas said of his own company’s mobile offerings. And later, he also admitted that those people are a source of long-term recurring revenue because they forget they’re being charged — something Mike Baker of Nokia called the “sleeping dog” business model.

But Myspace is also gearing up a big push into mobile advertising, which works better on web applications. Facebook, too, is expecting significant revenue from mobile ads, despite a lack of information on how advertising really works in mobile. “The industry isn’t spending time figuring out what the value of a click is on a mobile device,” Baker said. Advertising budgets for mobile are steadily fattening, but just as with the web, advertisers will sooner or later demand evidence of results — or else they won’t pay much per view, or click.

Despite the uncertainties, both MySpace and Facebook, represented at the event by Jed Stremel, are betting big on revenue from mobile advertising. Applications aren’t as good for that because ads tend to be hidden deep within the apps, making them less accessible. They’re still useful for conveying a unique, more full-featured experience than the web can offer. But for most mobile startups, web deployments will be the frontier of the future.

And as with the Internet, the economics will be in large scale. “We’re beginning the golden age of mobile,” Stremel said. “People will find a way to get tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of users, and monetize them.” Such wide-scale adoption would be nearly impossible for opt-in subscription fees, but ads would fit the bill.

To round out Skydeck’s contribution, the company also used the event to announce that it’s opening its public beta today. Skydeck, in case you’ve forgotten, collects data from your mobile phone about your calls and clearly presents a report (unlike your carrier). The company has its own call-based social network, and an API for third parties to access its information. If you want to check it out more closely, sign up here.

It’s great news to hear that Om Malik is feeling better after his heart attack. On behalf of everybody at VentureBeat, I want to send him my best wishes for a full recovery. We at VentureBeat may compete with his team head-to-head on a daily basis, but we sustain each other just as much as we compete — we’re small players that link to each other on a regular basis, and we consider him and his team friends. As I mentioned when he launched GigOm more than a year ago, Om inspired me to start blogging. His wit makes him among Silicon Valley’s best. I just got off the phone with Om’s business partner and GigaOm chief operating officer, Paul Walborsky, who informs me that Om is doing fine, so we don’t have to worry. He’ll have to start doing some more exercise, something that’s difficult to do when you lead the stressful life of a full-time blogger. But that’s something we’ll encourage him to do — as Paul said, I might have to recruit him to join me on my regular runs in the East Bay hills. (Picture of Om by Scott Beale at Laughing Squid.)

GigaOm, a popular Silicon Valley technology blog network, has raised another round of funding from True Ventures, with angel investors participating.

Founder Om Malik says the money will be used to build out the editorial operation as well as hosting more events. For example, GigaOm blog NewTeeVee, which covers the online video market, will do a repeat next year of the industry conference it hosted yesterday.

The angel investors include Rakesh Mathur, Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, who have experience developing contextual content discovery software. GigaOm is looking to incorporate that type of technology, Malik writes, saying he is saving the details for later.

Besides the eponymously-named flagship blog GigaOm and NewTeeVee, the network also includes WebWorkerDaily, FoundRead and Earth2Tech.

There were some reports that GigaOm raised $1 million in this round, but Malik says that it was more than that. The company previously raised several hundred thousand dollars.