Will Dublin City Council Act?

Just what mobile users have been waiting for: a 4-character TLD, two of those on the same key ...

Am I missing something, or is .mobi the dumbest idea ever?

Conn

You're missing the entire point behind .mobi

Yes - it's a 4 letter TLD.

However any site that is available as a .mobi has to be viewable on a mobile device.

You shouldn't have to remember the "mobile" address for a site, such as wap.somedomain.tld or whatever if the company / site has a mobile version

Michele

Michele,

I just think it's extremely ironic that a TLD for mobile devices is more difficult than most to type on such a device.

Secondly - I probably am missing the point, but why can't sites simply serve the mobile version when the request is from a mobile device?

Conn

Conn

While it is possible that a "normal" site could serve a mobile version to a mobile device there is zero guarantee that it will. The idea behind .mobi is that ALL sites using a .mobi extension will work on your mobile device

Michele

Hi Conn (and Michele)

dotMobi is about branding, context AND technology. We have always been upfront in saying yes, it is certainly possible to deliver a mobile version of a PC web-site using a fancy rendering application. However, the problem with this is that the user sees a web-site intended for the PC squeezed onto a small mobile screen. dotMobi forces web managers to think about the information they want presented on their mobile site and to design an appropriate site free of heavy downloads etc. Users on the move do not necessarily want to scroll through shareholder information, lengthy articles etc etc. They want to access certain information quickly (although the 'hey I'm bored, lets browse' market is also active of course).

The dotMobi domain is also a trustmark - it guarantees a good mobile user experience unlike many other mobile web addresses which can be hit and miss.

Finally, the doMobi address is memorable. Mobile web addresses are a bit of a mess at the minute - company.com/mobile, wap.company.com, m.company.com etc etc. .mobi is one address, one destination.

As for the typing in of the extension - well, we hope and anticipate that it is only a matter of time before mobile browsers default to .mobi. However, looking at the length of some names currently registered with dotMobi, typing letters is certainly not an inhibitor!

Hope this helps. You can check out our own blog (blog.mobi) for deeper discussion on any of these issues and more.

Caroline Greer
Director of Policy, dotMobi