04-06-2006, 05:00 PM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Let's Talk About .mobi
The .mobi TLD (top-level domain) is preparing for an official launch on May 22. Suffice to say, the world remains divided over its value, though some people like Russell Beattie seem to have reached a final conclusion - that is, it's here to stay and it's a 'good thing'. But is it really? Let's evaluate a few of the pros and cons.
Reasons to Love .mobi
� It's easy to remember. To mouth off a couple of examples, MSN Mobile is accessible via http://mobile.msn.com/ and BBC News is accessible via http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/. A pain to remember? Maybe not, but try a hundred of your favourite mobile portals and you can see where all hell breaks loose. By replacing these confusing URLs with simple ones like msn.mobi and bbc.mobi, your neurons will thank you. In addition, the URLs of unknown sites no longer become a guessing game. They simply follow the format of <companyname>.mobi.
� .mobi sites follow a strict XHTML standard. This ensures that just about any Web-enabled mobile device can access all content without a hitch. Other standards that must be adhered to are the exclusion of frames and zero reliance on 'www' in the URL. That's right - all up, it equates to less typing, more browsing, and more pages that (finally) fit that tiny screen.
Reasons to Hate .mobi
� Another domain, another expense. Content distribution via a mobile-friendly template can exist on a .com gTLD (generic top-level domain). If you visit our site with your Pocket PC or Smartphone, you'll see it in action. Introducing a new .mobi standard increases costs by forcing site owners to register another domain. This might not be an issue for major companies, but for minor and/or non-profit companies, that added expense can bite hard on the budget.
� Separation, not unification. Some industry analysts have argued that the .mobi TLD only serves to divide the online world. Online resources should be widely accessible independent of the hardware being used, and naturally, all on the same domain. As mentioned earlier, content distribution via a desktop-friendly template and a mobile-friendly template can co-exist on the same TLD. Why turn away from this idea of 'unification' and instead separate our mobile and immobile operating environments via an exclusive .mobi TLD?
Some Real World Examples
But enough of the evaluating - why not try .mobi for yourself and see if it's worth it? Grab your Pocket PC or Smartphone, launch your web browser, and visit some of the concept sites currently available - to name a couple, weather.mobi (a mobile weather portal hosted by The Weather Channel), and cityguide.mobi (a local city search site). Then considering the pros and cons mentioned above (and any others you may have in mind), tell us whether .mobi is the right way to go.
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04-06-2006, 05:51 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 797
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As a content provider / site owner, I have to wonder what's going to happen to those of us who own one of the other TLD's. I mean, imagine if you own CNN, and someone comes along and registers CNN.mobi and it's for some legitimate site of some kind... You're going to see a string of domain hijacking and cybersquatting on the lines of which you've never seen in your life.
I think .mobi is nothing special, and the sites that are going to be there could have always been put on .com or .net if the site designer properly set up the detection for the user agents of mobile browsers (along the lines of what PPC Thoughts does). .Mobi could be cool, but in the end it's just unnecessary.
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04-06-2006, 05:57 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 147
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I'll give you that there is an additional cost and I understand that as a small business every cent counts, but the cost per year is minimal.
That said, I don't think the separation/unity argument holds much water. You can alway maintain the mobile portal at other urls and have your mobi url point to that. MSN.mobi points to mobile.msn.com and it just makes it easier for the user to remember and type in. PPCT.mobi is a LOT easier to type than www.pocketpcthoughts.com, even if it does auto-detect and format accordingly.
There should be great concern over domain-jacking, though. That could be a BIG problem if it isn't policed right. Guess we'll just have to wait & see...
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04-06-2006, 07:37 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 31
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I dont like .mobi. I think that its quite unnecessary because of cost to the site owners, reteaching site visitors, and it basically seperates the net into mobiles and not so moibles. Would a redirect work? Yes, could a redirect on cnn.com go to cnn.mobi and the user never have to remember a dang thing? Sure. Will it always be that simple? Nope.
However, this will be a great thing for selling mobile services. superbowl.mobi for exculsive pics and vids to download or something like that would be a nice adaptation of it. Make it mobile only content and it will pay for itself....eventually...or not.
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04-06-2006, 07:46 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 797
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by d-roC
Would a redirect work? Yes, could a redirect on cnn.com go to cnn.mobi and the user never have to remember a dang thing? Sure.
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And that's exactly my point. If you're going to redirect anyway, why do you need a whole new domain?
Doesn't really make sense to me, to be honest. I'm sure there's some big obvious plus that I'm just not seeing. :confused totally:
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04-06-2006, 07:59 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 574
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To be honest, i just want to remember one URL: CNN (=the company) . COM (=global)
I do not want to know which browser i'm using currently and how it is serverd best, and switch manually. As i see it, the URL is the locater of the content, and the site should decide from there how to serve it's client best. This could be by serving a full-fledged site, it could be by serving a site that is optimized for mobile users, it could be by serving a RSS-feed.
Jaap
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04-06-2006, 08:02 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 444
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Re: Let's Talk About .mobi
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Vincent M Ferrari
If you're going to redirect anyway, why do you need a whole new domain?
Doesn't really make sense to me, to be honest. I'm sure there's some big obvious plus that I'm just not seeing. :confused totally:
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Darius Wey
Reasons to Hate .mobi
� Another domain, another expense.
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I would suspect that that is a big plus, at least for the companies that make money off of domain name registration.
If you launch it, they will (have to) buy it.
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04-06-2006, 08:05 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 437
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Re: Let's Talk About .mobi
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Darius Wey
Reasons to Love .mobi
� .mobi sites follow a strict XHTML standard.
Reasons to Hate .mobi
� Separation, not unification.
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As mobile technology advances, I think these are the two issues that come into concern. For instance, Windows Mobile 5 AKU2 is getting frames support in Internet Explorer.
Combine that with VGA and SVGA smartphones that are bound to come out in the future, and you have a TLD that has the potential of becoming obsolete.
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04-06-2006, 08:44 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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It's not only that such a TLD could become obsolete, it's that it should, before it even gets off the ground. Why settle for less, when browsers, plugins, and device screens are getting better and better at handling normal web pages? This is backwards thinking. I want more, not less. Who wants less? When I visit the mobile version of Google, I see links only, no descriptions. As a result I wind up tapping several times as many links, opening piles more pages, all because the mobile version lacks the descriptive excerpts from those pages. Similarly with the sample pages you've offered here in the .mobi style, there is less utlity, less information being offered. In the name of convenience? Come on, get real!
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04-06-2006, 09:09 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 67
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my husband blogged about .mobi a few months ago, and I think he had a point when he wrote that typing "mobi" on a numeric keypad is a pain in the butt: (10 key-presses! ;-)
http://jbq.livejournal.com/78522.html
If that was .wap, it would have been much-much better IMHO.
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