Network Solutions VP forecasts search engines will rank MOBIs higher than other tlds.

[Vision]

Should You Do the DotMobi?
By Lauren Simonds
July 17, 2007


The latest trend working its way into the small business world concerns mobile phones and Web sites. If you've ever tried to access your favorite site with a handheld mobile device, you're familiar with how bad most Web sites look and how hard it is to use them. That's the problem dotMobi was created to solve.

DotMobi, more commonly written as .mobi, is a top-level domain – as are other more familiar domains such as .com, .biz and .org. A dotMobi domain is designed to optimize Web content for mobile devices – PDAs, smartphones and Internet-ready cell phones. The desired end result is a site that looks as good – and performs as well -- on a handheld as it does on a computer.

The dotMobi domain is still a fairly young innovation, but according Jeff Grosman, senior vice president at Network Solutions, one of many Internet service providers that offers dotMobi domain registration, hosting and services, so far a total of 600,000 mobile-optimized domains have been sold in since October 2006.

This trend may gain traction since sales of handheld devices are eclipsing computers. In 2006, Gartner analysts estimated that sales of mobile phones alone would hit 986 million units. Compare that to IDC's estimates that PC sales will hit 300 million units annually by 2009.

The dotMOBI technology is still in the early stages, though Grosman said he expects things to advance quickly. "We expect to see the same progression with dotMobi as we've seen with traditional Web sites," said Grosman. He added that dotMobi sites currently provide basic information such as sales specials, menus, location, phone number and store hours. As the application technology develops, those sites will offer information services like tracking packages, account balances and e-commerce.

"Right now, there isn't a lot of sophistication as far as application software goes, but that progression should happen fairly quickly, within two years," he said. As for e-commerce capability, Grosman estimates the first dot.mobi e-commerce sites will come from Fortune 500 companies in approximately six to eight months.

Nearly 60 percent of Network Solutions' customers are service-oriented companies that don't conduct e-commerce, but still need a Web presence. Grosman suggested that any business should consider having multiple domains for each site: for example, MyRestaurant.com and MyRestaurant.mobi (and .org, .net and so on). That strategy prevents your competition from grabbing up the domains. And, of course, it also increases the Internet service provider's revenue stream.

Grosman also said that he envisions a time when search engines recognize when a search is conducted on a mobile device and thus consider MOBI sites as more relevant and rank them higher than sites not optimized for mobile devices. "If you were to search for 'pizza,' for example, you would get listings of sites that are dotMobi compliant first," said Grosman.

You can find more information about which Internet service providers offer dot.Mobi domains at the official dotMobi site. If you want to see what your Web site looks like on a handheld, you can also try the dot.Mobi emulator.

Of course, Network Solutions offers dotMOBI domains, and starting in August, it will also offer a dotMOBI design service called Do It Myself. Customers who buy a dotMOBI domain can build a dotMOBI-compliant Web site with up to five pages – for $20 per year plus the cost of the domain. A dotMOBI domain costs $34.95 per year. Gosman said that the site will be rendered in a way that 99.9 percent of Internet-capable mobile devices can view it.

Here is the article link:
http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/news/article.php/3689271

 

[Fearless]

Who listens to Network Solutions?

 

[bryanwang]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Focus]

Wow, these companies using these .morbid domains only mean they are getting them before someone else does and to protect their corporate brands, it is alot easier to type .com in on your cellphone than .mobi and any website can easily have two versions with auto-detect ability to serve the correct content to a cellphone user...they all still continue to do business primarily from their .com domains..the big corporate .mobi grab and subsequent site launches (or redirects) are mostly due to the heavy marketing and advertising of the .mobi extension to them and all the behind the scenes deals & marketing dollars going into the pockets of big advertising agencies & marketing advisors that they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with a year so they don't "miss anything" and are up on the latest net trends, simply put....there is no inherent power or lasting value in these names other than the obvious recent hysteria they have created around them themselves, from a big drowning pool of user inflated values & perceptions brought about based on this concept or idea that if some fortune 500 company is using a .mobi that means all your crappy two word .mobi domains are gonna be worth so much money and get so much traffic in 5 years, etc or someone is gonna just come along one day and buy it for 50k...seriously..wake up, stop wasting your money and attention on .mobi, it's uneccessary and will get phased out and forgot about sooner than you think! My opinion of course! eace:

 

[namewaiter]

what a great post, just thought it would be nice to see it again...

btw, http://netsol.mobi is live...

Acro, you epitomize the "Public Spectacle."

Acro, in case you forgot, you have been booted off DnForum twice. You enjoy poisoning the lifeblood of this forum.

Lets analyze....

How old are dotORG & dotNET?

dotORG and dotNET were both introduced in 1985 - 22 years old
dotMOBI was introduced on Septemebr 26, 2006 - 10 months old

Who sponsors, promotes and financially backs .org and .net?

dotORG sponsored, promoted and financially backed by the Public Registry ---Nobody

dotNET is sponsored,promoted and financially backed by the Lockness Monster and Elvis.


Who sponsors, promotes and financially backs dotMOBI?

dotMOBI is sponsored, promoted, or financially backed by the following:

the mTLD led by seasoned exceptional Marketers and IT Directors

and MAJOR companies such as:
Google - Mr. Shannon MAHER
Microsoft - Mr. Matt CHAMPAGNE
Nokia - Ms. Ritva SIREN
Samsung - Mr. Do Hun KWON
Ericsson - Mr. Hans OVESEN
Vodafone - Mr. Reinhard KREFT
T-Mobile - Mr. Normen B. KOWALEWSKI
Telefónica Móviles - Mr. Luis Jorge ROMERO
Telecom Italia Mobile - Mr. Gaetano LIGGIERI
Orascom Telecom - Mr. Khaled BICHARA
GSM Association - Mr. Ben SOPPITT
Hutchison Whampoa - Mr. Christian SALBAING
Syniverse Technologies - Mr. Jerry EASOM
VISA International - Mr. Patrick GAUTHIER

dotMOBI's global PR company is Edelman. Edelman is one of the largest PR firms in the world. Several dotMOBI sponsors are also clients of Edelman.

Which Fortune 1000 companies have adopted .org, .net and .mobi?

Banking
BofA.mobi? Yes bofa.net? NO bofa.org No
Deutsche-Bank.mobi? Yes Deutsche-Bank.net? No Deutsche-Bank.org? No
Wachovia.mobi? Yes Wachovia.net? No Wachovia.org? No
Barclays.mobi? Yes Barclays.net? No Barclays.org? No

Insurance
Ing.mobi? Yes Ing.net? No Ing.org? No
StateFarm.mobi? Yes StateFarm.net? Yes StateFarm.org? No

Car Manufacturers
BMW.mobi? Yes BMW.net? No BMW.org?
Rolls-Royce.mobi?Yes Rolls-Royce.net? Yes Rolls-Royce.org? No
FordCA.mobi? Yes FordCA.net? No FordCA.org? No

Transportation
Amtrak.mobi? Yes. Amtrak.net? No Amtrak.org? No
SAS.mobi? Yes SAS.net? No sas.org? No

Magazines
Time.mobi? Yes Time.net? No Time.org No
BusinessWeek.mobi? Yes BusinessWeek.net? No BusinessWeek.org? No
CNNMoney.mobi?Yes CNNMoney.net? No CNNMoney.org? No

Technology
Cisco.mobi? Yes Cisco.net? No Cisco.org? No

News
FoxNews.mobi? Yes FoxNews.net? No FoxNews.org? No
MSN.mobi? Yes MSN.net? Yes MSN.org? No

Mobile Operators
Three.mobi? Yes three.net? No Three.org? No
Vodafone.mobi?Yes Vodafone.net? Yes Vodafone.org? No
TIM.mobi? Yes Tim.net? No Tim.org? No
Orange.mobi? Yes Orange.net? No Orange.org? No
T-mobile.mobi? Yes T-mobile.net? Yes T-Mobile.org? No

Mobile Manufacturers
Nokia.mobi? Yes Nokia.net? No Nokia.org? No
Ericsson.mobi? Yes Ericsson.net? Yes Ericsson.org? No


The Weather Channel
Weather.mobi? Yes Weather.net? No Weather.org? No

Clothing
Polo.mobi? Yes Polo.net? No Polo.org? No

MOBI has achieved much success in only 10 months.

Certain people make under the disguise of constructive criticism with the intension to make MOBI look bad because they consider MOBI a threat to their already established websites and PPC income. They certainly don’t want to lose any visitors to MOBI and the more potential a new extension might have to become successful the more it will be the subject of their constant attacks.

Case in point, Do you see the likes of Acro, Duckinla and others consistently mock, hyperventilate, protest and bad mouth .eu, .cc, .biz .ws or the other 200 domain extensions?

Answer: No.

Why?

Because MOBI is the most successful domain extension to emerge since .com for all the aforementioned reasons and several other compelling facts.

Michael

 

[Poker]

Network Solutions....hmmm...can't think of any reason that they would hype .mobi

A dotMobi domain is designed to optimize Web content for mobile devices – PDAs, smartphones and Internet-ready cell phones.

uh...domains don't optimize web content, people do.

 

[Fearless]

Network Solutions....hmmm...can't think of any reason that they would hype .mobi

Imagine that, a .mobi registrar hyping .mobi. Go figure.

 

[GeoOwners]

Gotta love the selective bolding

This is important:

"Grosman suggested that any business should consider having multiple domains for each site: for example, MyRestaurant.com and MyRestaurant.mobi (and .org, .net and so on). That strategy prevents your competition from grabbing up the domains. And, of course, it also increases the Internet service provider's revenue stream."

...which is only logical, as NetSol needs the revenue really bad.

that's hillarious from someone with a siggy full of .nets and .orgs :smilewinkgrin:

It might be easier to type .com than .mobi but it's not easier to pay for the bandwidth if you dont have unlimited usage...

Wow, these companies using these .morbid domains only mean they are getting them before someone else does and to protect their corporate brands, it is alot easier to type .com in on your cellphone than .mobi and any website can easily have two versions with auto-detect ability to serve the correct content to a cellphone user...they all still continue to do business primarily from their .com domains..the big corporate .mobi grab and subsequent site launches (or redirects) are mostly due to the heavy marketing and advertising of the .mobi extension to them and all the behind the scenes deals & marketing dollars going into the pockets of big advertising agencies & marketing advisors that they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars with a year so they don't "miss anything" and are up on the latest net trends, simply put....there is no inherent power or lasting value in these names other than the obvious recent hysteria they have created around them themselves, from a big drowning pool of user inflated values & perceptions brought about based on this concept or idea that if some fortune 500 company is using a .mobi that means all your crappy two word .mobi domains are gonna be worth so much money and get so much traffic in 5 years, etc or someone is gonna just come along one day and buy it for 50k...seriously..wake up, stop wasting your money and attention on .mobi, it's uneccessary and will get phased out and forgot about sooner than you think! My opinion of course! eace:

 

[Gerry]

Hmm...go figure. If we need .com then why do we need .net, .info, .org, .us, and the 250 other extensions. Hmm...go figure.

What I have not heard from a single person yet is someone to state that .mobi does not work, therefore it will not be successful.

So someone state right now that dot mobi does not work. And that will be the end of all the squabbling.

Don't tell me it is not needed because all you are saying to the members on this forum and this thread is YOU don't need it or want it. Don't tell me there are plenty of other ways to access the internet on the phone because there will be no argument that yes, you can access via m.domain.com, wap.domain.com, domain.com.mobi, domain.com.mobile, mobile.domain.com and my personal favorite...tinyurl.domain.com along with any other creative methodology that each and every individual programmer and web master can come up with to make you visit there site.

If there are 256 domain extensions then there must be at least 1000 ways and web URL's to reach them on a phone. I'll bet if we all get together and look for the mobile sites accessed by mobile phones right now that we can perhaps find 50-100 different URL's representing the mobile version of the dot com.

So tell me why I have to remember 50 different ways to go about achieving one goal and that is to access the internet via a mobile device without have to go through one simple method...dot mobi.

So someone, please...have something new to say. Tell me that .mobi does not work for the purpose it was intended for.

And tell me why you have anything else in your portfolio other than .com?

 

[dcristo]

You would say that if your selling .Mobi Google doesn't discrimate against extensions, it's the site on the domain which is important.

 

[namewaiter]

there was an axroplex sighting in here i swear (even quoted), it seams he disappeared! what's going on?

 

[Theo]

there was an axroplex sighting in here i swear (even quoted), it seams he disappeared! what's going on?

Probably some imposter. I will notify Adam.

Edit:

It's funny that a moderator has removed my post which was quoted by other people's replies that CLEARLY describes the facts: that this is just a NetSol PR hoping for more customers. It's really a shame that such patronizing occurs.

 

[namewaiter]

Probably some imposter. I will notify Adam.

Edit:

It's funny that a moderator has removed my post which was quoted by other people's replies that CLEARLY describes the facts: that this is just a NetSol PR hoping for more customers. It's really a shame that such patronizing occurs.

i'm actually shocked as well, as historically the partonizing has been tilted away from .mobi here at dnf.

 

[PRED]

it's all good :smilewinkgrin:

 

[Gerry]

Probably some imposter. I will notify Adam.

Edit:

It's funny that a moderator has removed my post which was quoted by other people's replies that CLEARLY describes the facts: that this is just a NetSol PR hoping for more customers. It's really a shame that such patronizing occurs.

I see no editing being necessary at all from any side as long as it remains civil. Sorry that this is now a controlled environment and I welcome points from all sides. I don't have to agree with them, but I welcome them.

 

[Theo]

I edited my post ADDING the second paragraph, after realizing that this thread has been bastardized by a moderator who removed my original response and left one of my comments as a quotation in other people's posts.

I never edit my posts to censor my statements or positions.

 

[Vision]

I see no editing being necessary at all from any side as long as it remains civil. Sorry that this is now a controlled environment and I welcome points from all sides. I don't have to agree with them, but I welcome them.

I agree. My post was removed too at the same time Acro's was abolished.

Thanks to NameWaiter for making a copy of mine.

 

[Gerry]

I never edit my posts to censor my statements or positions.

I am quite aware of this. Apparently not all see it this way and I was not aware that censoring or editing was going on. But I do see now that this has been done as I recall looking in late last night and seeing more "discussion" that is now gone.

I agree. My post was removed too at the same time Acro's was abolished.

Thanks to NameWaiter for making a copy of mine.

Not a good thing. I agree that there needs to be some "management" or control of tempers in theads (yeah, look who the hell is saying this, eh?) but removing statements of point/counterpoint, agree/disagree? Name calling, well that is another matter.

But hey, I'm all about proving or disproving a point.

And if this action is going on with domain discussions, why is the censorship absent from the flaming political, religious, and other name calling, bashing, and bastardizing threads?

 

[Poker]

So someone state right now that dot mobi does not work. And that will be the end of all the squabbling.

If a .mobi site resolves then it would be hard to say that it doesn't work. It's just not needed.

 

[whitebark]

Imagine that, a .mobi registrar hyping .mobi. Go figure.

Indeed, if we looked hard enough there are probably releases like this for all new extensions to have come along. But what gets me is that Network Solutions are now search engine specialists. After reading the article its pretty clear they don't know too much about how search engines work, or how content is created for it.