Is .mobi the future of cellphone websites?

[katherine]

As long as it takes for the Madison Avenue ad people to wake up to the mobile internet and get out of the 20th century.

Madison Avenue has yet to come to terms with the Internet era...

mobi websites are useless stripped down neutered websites compared to the real thing. If you really think consumers would prefer that to the real deal you are seriously deluded and invested too heavily in mobi to see reality.

There may be a market for stripped down, bare bone websites, but a very tiny one ie. commuter websites.

I won't redo any of my websites going ahead to target mobile traffic. It would be a waste of time, a waste of money and a waste of effort.

Same here. The critical mass isn't there. If I had at least 10% mobile visitors I would have an incentive. To me it would be more effective to translate my websites to other languages rather than cater to a marginal audience.

Not to mention that the TLD is awkward and unbrandable. Needless to say I don't have a single mobi or asia in my portfolio

 

[Gerry]

There may be a market for stripped down, bare bone websites, but a very tiny one ie. commuter websites.

There are many books and articles out there on Web 2.0 and 3.0 touting this very thing.

De-clutter sites.

Many studies have proven that for the most part, we no longer read...we scan.

This is especially true of web sites. We scan for immediate gratification. Typically that gratification is delivery of information we are seeking.

Clutter is the new form of noise. Noise is distracting.

A great book to read for anyone considering building, designing, or writing for web sites is Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug.

It doesn't matter to me if people want to call .mobi a "watered down web". It is information delivered immediately.

That is what the customer wants.

That is what my customer get.

 

[DomainsInc]

mobi is dead. It was five years too late. Anyone who owns a new phone like the iphone knows there is no need for any type of specially crafted mobile page for them to view the website. Oh sure it takes two seconds more to load, but I'd rather wait two seconds and get everything than save it and get next to nothing.

mobi websites are useless stripped down neutered websites compared to the real thing. If you really think consumers would prefer that to the real deal you are seriously deluded and invested too heavily in mobi to see reality.

Then there is the tired old - "you have to scroll on an iphone." Well you have to scroll on your laptop and desktops too. Feeble excuse imo.

I won't redo any of my websites going ahead to target mobile traffic. It would be a waste of time, a waste of money and a waste of effort. As I and others predicted, the technology is rolling along at a quick pace and the browsers are rendering content as developers intended already today. Tomorrow they will be even better. Next year they will have it down pat. Bye bye mobi. Good on those that flipped early during all the self-created hype.

No one used the internet on their cellphones five years ago. Also, I don't see why sites that are exclusively mobile, wouldn't use a .mobi.

 

[katherine]

De-clutter sites.

De-clutter is good. Watered down is a different thing.
Information is not the same as content.
It's like comparing a news ticker to a newspaper

 

[Gerry]

De-clutter is good. Watered down is a different thing.
Information is not the same as content.
It's like comparing a news ticker to a newspaper

Watered down is a poor choice of words. It like whiskey during the Prohibition Era (No, I am not that old).

Basically you have several enormous factors driving todays internet.

A Younger more in tune generation.
New technology
An Unwired/Mobile Internet
And a new class of business model of businesses listening to the customer.

For generations businesses attempted to dictate what the consumer needed. It was a take it or leave it mentality.

We are seeing the price of this old business model in today's economy, most notably the auto industry.

If there was ever a prime example of too little, too late this would be it.

How many decades and how many quarterly loses after loses did the BIG 3 finally begin to realize they were not making vehicles for the masses and ignoring the surveys of what the consumer wanted.

So take that old mindset and apply it to todays internet and marketing and you'll see the widening gap.

And that is the current mindset of the big advertising giants and gurus.

There are a few that "get it" as they do not limit their scope and their practice to one only USA market.

.Mobi compliant sites make the creator stay with the simple mantra KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid. (Stupid being the creator not the viewer).

This is what I refer to when I mention De-clutter.

Sure, I can take any extension and make it mobi compliant. That is no issue at all. It is the fact that it IS mobi compliant that distinguishes it from another site. It is not the auto-detect capability.

.Mobi brands itself as being mobi(le). The mere fact that a PC site and mobile site can co-exist should not be a great mystery at all.

And whether some say it is an added expense, cost, and waste of time - is not the m. prefix the same thing? An added expense, cost, and waste of time? And talk about competing! The soon to be release potentially thousands of URL's not to mention that is there is not uniformity in distinguishing a mobile site other than .mobi?

Every programmer, webdesigner, and web master in the world is free to distinguish his/her own site in any configuration that they so choose to designate that site as mobile. No restraints whatsoever.

Seriously, as soon as domainers get out of the mindset of the Madison Avenue Ad execs and the Big 3 automakers when they say, "we control things around here and what we say goes", the better off the internet will be.

Actually, for that matter - the internet does not NEED domainers to exist let alone to dictate how the internet is to be used. Domainers need consumers and ways to reach those consumers. It is not the consumer that needs domainers.

Ok, lets head out awhile to do some black Saturday shopping. This ought to be fun.

 

[whitebark]

Great sermon. Keep on preaching this gospel.

Don't worry I will. I won't be silenced by the mobi-screamers. It's the truth. I've yet to meet a single person with a new phone who has complained about load times, scrolling or any other nonsense used by mobi-fans to try to make it seem like a neutered website is the way to go.

Betting against technology - there's a bright idea.

Same here. The critical mass isn't there. If I had at least 10% mobile visitors I would have an incentive. To me it would be more effective to translate my websites to other languages rather than cater to a marginal audience.

Not to mention that the TLD is awkward and unbrandable. Needless to say I don't have a single mobi or asia in my portfolio

I was happy last month to see my websites together cleared over one million visitors - total mobile traffic - less than .05 percent. Now should I cater to the one inch screen fans, or just leave them as is for those with new phones, and those to come? The answer is pretty clear.

mobi was needed five years ago. It's useless today.

i should also add - what are the hottest selling types of phones/mobile devices today? One guess - it's certainly not those that would require neutered websites...

 

[Gerry]

Betting against technology - there's a bright idea.

I am hardly the one betting against technology. I have embraced it.

Auto detection will not catch up to technology for years. How is auto detect going to possibly read your mind to detect what it is you want to see and do not want to see?

Not going to happen for years. And perhaps not in our lifetimes for a browser to be so intuitive that it works on your thoughts.

It seems that the overwhelming majority of members here are the one betting against technology.

Are you for the getting bigger is better school of thought? Do you really think people want to

I used the example of scrolling simply to illustrate a point of taking a full PC site and making it about 3 inches x 4 inches. Have you actually tried this? Have you actually tried taking the iPhone and using it to view a full blown website? It is going to take some time to find what it is you are looking for. That simple. It does not pop up to the exact spot it is you want to be in.

Yes, every one loves it. The technology behind the touch screen and scrolling with fingers.

While my wife and I were waiting for a flight, I let her use the iPod Touch. She found the task of going to a site and trying to find what she was looking for annoying.

Try this. Look at NWF.org on your mobile device.

Then look at NWF.mobi.

What works best for the mobile?

Water-down? Not hardly. De-cluttered. De-cluttered to the point of if you want the images, you have the option of adding the images back in.

Regardless, I am hardly the one betting against technology here. You obviously are oblivious to technology and trends and are still betting on the old 1958 Edsel Ranger being the car of the future.

I do not disdain .com or any extension for that matter. But if you want to be tied down to your PC or laptop the rest of your life rather move forward, that is entirely up to you.

I think you have a future as a CEO of one of the Big 3 automakers or perhaps a Madison Ave. Advertising exec preaching everything is fine and it is back to business as usual.

At least as CEO they will not be standing in the un-employment lines.

It's the truth. I've yet to meet a single person with a new phone who has complained about load times, scrolling or any other nonsense used by mobi-fans to try to make it seem like a neutered website is the way to go

If you know nothing else and have not experienced anything different, then you have nothing to compare it to.

That is the simplicity of it.

And it does not take a genius to keep up with the news and trends regarding the NA continent lagging WAY behind the progress of Asia in Europe in terms of internet and mobile speed, technology, and usability.

Touch screens is nothing new to them at all but all of a sudden Jobs and company wants to proclaim the creator of the touchscreen combination phone. Sounds like an Al Gore complex to me.

And you have never answered a question I posed a long time ago.

When will you mandate which extension, prefix, or suffix to use to determine which one and only one those that are bastardizing the internet will use to access a mobile site?

Like I said time and time again, the world is not listening to domainers. They want ease of access and portability. They want simplicity.

And if you think it is bad now, just wait until at a minimum 2 years from now when perhaps 100 or 200 or more new gTLD's are released into the masses.

Then you can decide what is the best, most accurate, and most descriptive term to access mobile.

Go ahead - have your say now. Mandate that one way that all the world gets to a mobile site on a mobile device.

 

[raoul]

it will never become huge, the mobile technology is moving too fast, and the .mobi registar to slow

their "view" on the mobile phones is from 2002 (release of first phone with colour LCD ericsson T68 4096 colours)

The first phone i seen with FULL swf flash player, released this year nokia E71 (dont compare it to the flash-lite player since juli 2005 specially for mobile devices)

 

[katherine]

True, the Internet does not need domainers. But mtld is lucky they have speculators to keep them afloat.

 

[Gerry]

True, the Internet does not need domainers. But mtld is lucky they have speculators to keep them afloat.

And so do the .com and .net registries.

It is the registrars that are happy and should be happy and glad for the domainers.

Just like those that jumped on .asia and .me.

Again, you have not seen anything yet. Wait until the .nyc, .ber, .hamberg, and the countless other scams that will come up.

Do you remember the .travel domain?

A registrar that gave the top domains to a front company run by the daughter and son in law to look like a legitimately run registrar.

I can not imagine the scenarios that we will witness as a result of the ineptitude of ICANN.

And I wonder how many members on the forum now are the same members condemning .mobi where the same class of domainers announcing that IDN's never had a chance.

As for .mobi already being outdated, think again. Think as a consumer. Think as a global person on the go. Think of the hundreds and potentially thousands of domain extensions to keep up with.

Think that is far fetched? Already there are more than 260 + TLD's.

So as a consumer and a person on the go, you are going to have to keep up with all those TLD's to access the mobile internet and a mobile site.

I have no doubt that at some point in the future, there will be better browsers and better integration of the internet across all platforms. The PC and laptops were not wireless even perhaps 8 or so years ago. Remember?

Now we have computers hidden as mobile phones. If the Open Source system goes the way it is planned, this will quickly make the proprietary Apple widgets, add-ons, and iPhone only apps a thing of the past.

A good starting point to get an idea of the future of the mobile internet is the roundtable discussion called Mobile Web Wars.

Again, these are not domainers. But these are many of the leaders and backbone of some of the biggest internet and mobile companies around.

There are a great deal of developers and programmers involved in the discussion. There is a surprising (not to me) answer given to a particular question:

How many of you are designing for the iPhone?

Not a single person raised their hand.

Here is the link

Scroll down to the fourth video on this page. This is the complete roundtable discussion.

 

[George Verdugo]

what do you guys think , i just picked up forsale.mobi in spanish which is sevende.mobi
please give me your feed back thanks boyz!

 

[Gerry]

what do you guys think , i just picked up forsale.mobi in spanish which is sevende.mobi
please give me your feed back thanks boyz!

Unfortunately, you are in the wrong forum to get a thumbs up on this.

And the wrong thread.

If it is the most commonly used expression for "for sale" in the Spanish Language then it will be a keeper. Often times languages are tough no matter what the extension as there are so many variations for the same word or phrase.

Perhaps that led me to picking up many in Spanish and other foreign languages.

Such as getting ninos.mobi the other day in a drop.

 

[iDName]

I was happy last month to see my websites together cleared over one million visitors - total mobile traffic - less than .05 percent. Now should I cater to the one inch screen fans, or just leave them as is for those with new phones, and those to come? The answer is pretty clear.

mobi was needed five years ago. It's useless today.

LOL! :lol:

So you're not getting much mobile traffic to your PC site is what you're trying to say? LMAO

So the answer is pretty clear to you? Practically no one with an old or new cell phone is visiting your PC site! :yes:

Same here. The critical mass isn't there. If I had at least 10% mobile visitors I would have an incentive. To me it would be more effective to translate my websites to other languages rather than cater to a marginal audience.

Not to mention that the TLD is awkward and unbrandable. Needless to say I don't have a single mobi or asia in my portfolio

So you're not getting many mobile visitors to your PC site either? What a surprise! :smilewinkgrin:

Is Asia unbrandable too? :cheesy: :lol:

You do know Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent?

I don't own any .asia tho, btw. Just pointing out the fact that you'r not making much sense!

 

[Big P]

WebTel.mobi looks very promising..

 

[Gerry]

So you're not getting much mobile traffic to your PC site is what you're trying to say? LMAO

Odd that you mention this.

I installed Google Analytics on my primary site that I manage several months ago. It has more than 540,000 users. Since installing it, I have nearly 82% unique visitors (I am sure many of these are recurring from last year or before installation of analytics).

But I am just learning the ins and outs of Analytics. It is good but it is not all inclusive so I am keeping the old tracking program as well.

I am seeing many users from Safari Browsers (which I know is also Mac) and many from Opera (which is Nokia, correct?)

Even though the total may be a little over 1.5% of users, it is good to know.

Will this increase? Perhaps. I have been getting many emails from foreign countries. So I installed a multi-lingual module. But my site is primarily a testing site where you would print our the CEU certificate upon completion. So it will not be a big mobile site.

Yet I am making it a mobile version as well. There is nothing like telling people about it, having them pull out there phone, enter the URL, and having them say "Thanks. I bookmarked it and will check it out."

The average time on the site? 2:28. SWEET!

 

[Ownager]

f u c k e r.mobi (without spaces) dropped today i wanted it. :[

i got myspot.mobi as I liked the ring to it

 

[George Verdugo]

mobi is on the rise....

 

[ecomindia]

can i register a mobi with a hyphen?
I have never registered it but will like to register one?

 

[Gerry]

can i register a mobi with a hyphen?
I have never registered it but will like to register one?

Yes, you can.

 

[George Verdugo]

yes