It's renewal time, What are you doing with your .Mobi's?

[Gerry]

I never saw the need for .mobi and also don't see the need for .tel

I don't see the need for .cn

[Theo]

Let me know when you guys drop .tel

Alas, I have more .tel domains than .mobi

[whitebark]

I don't see the need for .cn

A billion people would disagree with you - unlike the six billion who have yet to hear about let alone use a mobi site...

[Theo]

A billion Chinese people are below the poverty level and don't even own a computer. Numbers of actual Internet use in China are much lower. Also, note that the .cn is heavily regulated in China. Want to open an adult theme park in China? Forget about it. Also, like most Asians the Chinese are intrigued by the Westerners. In that sense, they'd prefer .com over .cn

[Gerry]

People, my statement was meant to be an absurd presumption just as many are claiming about .mobi.

A billion people would disagree with you - unlike the six billion who have yet to hear about let alone use a mobi site...

The number is closer to 2 billion Chinese citizens, 357,000,000 .cn sites, and a government mandate that their citizens use .cn.

But stay tuned to news near you for unprecedented developments and cracks in the internet hierarchy.

[EG.domains]

Alas, I have more .tel domains than .mobi

I have 0 in both.

[Gerry]

Of course, when I want to surf the mobile web, the first place I look is for .ca that are mobile compatible.

True story.

I'll admit, as painfully as it is at times, that I had never heard of the Kootenay Rockies until I saw an ad for KootenayRockies.mobi.

I just looked and they are occupying the 11th spot on Google.

Now, you may want to ask a fellow Canadian why they went with a .mobi over any other extension, including .ca.

Whoops.

Make that number 4 on Google.ca.

Pretty impressive.

[Theo]

My point about .cn wasn't related to end-user usability. For that matter, there are users in every ccTLD in the world. But what reselling value does it hold from a domainer's perspective?

By the way, I find comical the way .cn owers of my com/net/org's attempt to pitch a sale.

[Gerry]

My point about .cn wasn't related to end-user usability. For that matter, there are users in every ccTLD in the world. But what reselling value does it hold from a domainer's perspective?

By the way, I find comical the way .cn owers of my com/net/org's attempt to pitch a sale.

comments were not necessarily directed to you or at you. Just a general statement.

I am with you on the sales pitch thing. There must be a massive network scouring the WHOIS data and sending out emails.

The primary concern I have regarding any value (real or perceived) of .cn is, is there really ANY value at all?

The Chinese government announced (2005 or 2006) that their goal was to have more .cn domains than any other domain. The strategy to achieve this was to decrease the registration fee to one Yuan, which is about $0.13 USD.

It is my understanding that One Yuan was for first year registration.

I can not begin to imagine how many of those have been dropped.

[Theo]

Doc, I didn't imply your response was aimed at me, and mine was also a general statement Sometimes, at 2am it's hard to keep the rules of quoting phrases etc.

By the way, here's the Chinese way of doing things:

http://whois.domaintools.com/bsa.com

Checkout the whois, the apparent attempt to show the domain is supposedly pending renewal or deletion (copying Netsol's nameserver format). It was sold at Namejet a while back.

[PRED]

I'll admit, as painfully as it is at times, that I had never heard of the Kootenay Rockies until I saw an ad for KootenayRockies.mobi.

I just looked and they are occupying the 11th spot on Google.

Now, you may want to ask a fellow Canadian why they went with a .mobi over any other extension, including .ca.

Whoops.

Make that number 4 on Google.ca.

Pretty impressive.

nah, never heard of them. why not try something every canadian has heard of? Globe & Mail

hey i know , i own one .cc, i'm thinking of dropping. i'll start a thread about it
time to get a new hobby dear, if times are that lean


as far as .cn also, it's a cctld and at about 10 cents a pop i dont care if it has the most regges, it can't stand alongside .de or .co.uk, yet
false figures for many reasons. it's their cctld though so has importance to them, and theres quite a few of them

as far as .mobi not selling on here, well, .co.uk rarely sells on here, or .de or just about anything else
.ca does, but there isn't a dedicated forum for .ca as far as i'm aware and there's a disproportionate number of canadians on here along with americans. so that's natural

there are dedicated forums for .cn, .mobi, .de, .co.uk etc
thats where the action takes place for these extensions. not here

.com,.org .info etc , yes here

i wasn't going to post as it's another one of those bs threads, but you know

[Anthony Ng]

must not be. Recent studies show only 5% of websites use the m. prefix.

I didn't say the m. thing is more common, or it should be. I just said I LOVE it; and it's clearly better in the sense that it doesn't dilute the .com brand of its mother flagship website. And to be honest, I don't know what you're talking about for the rest of your post. But it doesn't really matter. Anyway, the bottom line is, .mobi is NOT even remotely a standard for websites targeting mobile phone users.

[Gerry]

I didn't say the m. thing is more common, or it should be. I just said I LOVE it; and it's clearly better in the sense that it doesn't dilute the .com brand of its mother flagship website. And to be honest, I don't know what you're talking about for the rest of your post. But it doesn't really matter. Anyway, the bottom line is, .mobi is NOT even remotely a standard for websites targeting mobile phone users.

The mother ship. What a great analogy.

[mjnels]

Let me know when you guys drop .tel

Alas, I have more .tel domains than .mobi

heh.. i still dont understand what you guys are talking about. is my humor meter broken?

[Anthony Ng]

A billion Chinese people are below the poverty level and don't even own a computer. Numbers of actual Internet use in China are much lower.

First of all, the percentage of people living below the poverty line (as defined by the World Bank) in China is way much lower than your random guess, which stands at less than 10% of its 1.3 billion population. It's income inequality that really matters. But that's the problem of China. To those who only consider the country as a market (and not motherland), you only need to know that even if the opposite was true (say 90% of population below poverty line), China still has at least tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of well-off folks around; the only thing is whether YOU are able to tap into that. By the way, the number of actual Internet users there has already exceeded those of the US and Canada combined a couple of years ago.

Also, like most Asians the Chinese are intrigued by the Westerners. In that sense, they'd prefer .com over .cn

I'm not 100% sure of that.

[Gerry]

By the way, the number of actual Internet users there has already exceeded those of the US and Canada combined a couple of years ago.

do the use m.?

And to be honest, I don't know what you're talking about for the rest of your post.

Ah, so you too don't understand the implications when someone says -

I let a .mobi go last year.
The name has long been taken in EVERY gTLD as well as MANY ccTLDs.
Guess what, that .mobi is still available TODAY.

- its as if you have never let go of any other extension.

Your statement just proved the doom of .mobi, is that what you are saying?

Of course, you are not saying nor implying that you might have regged a bad name that no one else wants or does not fit the extension.

And, heaven forbid, you are not saying that you have never ever let go of a .com, .net, .org, .info, or anything else after only one year of ownership.

And, EGAD! you are not saying that other domains you have dropped are still available.

Now do you see how totally worthless your own statements are?

Just as worthless as my statement that .cn are worthless.

[Anthony Ng]

... as if you have never let go of any other extension.

Your statement just proved the doom of .mobi, is that what you are saying?

True, I don't see a very bright future of .mobi. To be fair, it's not so worse as .tel. I don't see a very bright future of .biz either. But more importantly, to portray .mobi as THE domain FOR mobile phone surfing is stretching it really really really really really thin.

And of course I have let go CNOBI domains after 1, 2 or even 3 years, but NEVER for one which has at ALL 5 gTLDs and 15 other ccTLD taken. Who would do that in their right mind?

[Gerry]

Who would do that in their right mind?

So you were not in your right mind?

Question (better, a scenario)

Currently there are over 270 ccTLD's, gTLDs
IDN's are about to hit
NewTLD's will probably hit Spring 2010

Now, not that .mobi is any thing special in regards to technology (is dot com?)

how are all of those hundreds and potentially thousands of extensions, billions of domain names, going to indicate that they are mobile compatible?

What do proposed TLD's like

music
sport
berlin
london
hamburg
eco

- what do they describe? A technology? A browser?

No. They describe a person, place, or thing.

Who said, name one person, who stated that all future internet access MUST be done via .com?

Which warlord or world leader decreed that all current and future internet access MUST be done the same way we did it 15 years ago?

Which soothsayer has put forth an mantra that indicates 3, 5, 10 years from now we will STILL be downloading music from iTunes.com, STILL looking for great London events on Expedia.com, and STILL getting world cup updates on ESPN.com?

There is not a thing wrong with a descriptive extension. You know why? Because every single damn extension in existence already is descriptive.

Lets say that these proposed add some clarity to the haziness, chaos, and confusion of where, what, and who to go to with eCommerce.

The argument of, "Look what the iPhone can do therefore .mobi is not needed" is old, tired, and outdated. WHY? How is it possible that it can be outdated already? Ah, the argument is out dated. Not the product. But the problem with the product is not everyone has it (85% of the global population does not have it) and the release of the IDN's and new TLD's IS NOT BEING DELAYED until 100% of the planet has one.

So, back to the original question(s).

With the existence of the current tld's, with the impending release of the IDN's, with the planned release of new TLD's, what do you think might be the best way of telling, indicating, or conveying to your audience that a site is compatible with ALL mobile devices?

If you want to insist that mobi is not needed because of the iPhone and iPhone clones that make up perhaps 20-24% of the global market, I don't want you on my team or my CIO because you have just neglected roughly 75%-80% of the market.

And if you want to insist that mobi is not needed because it dilutes the mother of all mother ships - the Holy Dot Com...

and if you want to insist that dot com was, is, and always will be the NUMBER ONE WAY the globe connects to the internet...

then I want to ask you to sit by your phone and call your local newspaper and tell them not to fold no matter how rough things may get and no matter how many readers stopped using the newspaper as their primary source of news...

and beg them to keep printing newspapers because you like it that way.

[Anthony Ng]

So you were not in your right mind?

I would not (in my right mind) IF I let go a CNO (and to a lesser extent, a .biz or .info); but I let go a .mobi. If you want me to spell it out, here it is. If I let go such a CNOBI, it will definitely be picked up in weeks at most (if not in days). But a .mobi? Need I say more.

If you want to insist that mobi is not needed because of the iPhone and iPhone clones that make up perhaps 20-24% of the global market, I don't want you on my team or my CIO because you have just neglected roughly 75%-80% of the market.
...
and if you want to insist that dot com was, is, and always will be the NUMBER ONE WAY the globe connects to the internet...

Just don't put words in my mouth. When did I want to be on your team? When did I say anything about iPhone? When did I even say .com will ALWAYS be the ONLY way to connect?

But I guess I understand your frustration. You probably invested heavily on .mobi. But the more aggressively you defend .mobi the worse, don't you get it? Anyway, if I said .com is "not needed", I doubt anybody would even give a damn. Hmm ...

[Gerry]

But I guess I understand your frustration. You probably invested heavily on .mobi. But the more aggressively you defend .mobi the worse, don't you get it? Anyway, if I said .com is "not needed", I doubt anybody would even give a damn. Hmm ...

Here is my frustration...

for an industry build on words and the value placed on words domainers sure are missing the boat, aren't they?

Defend mobi?

I would do the same to other extensions.

I am trying to make a point and that point is domainers want things just the way they want it. Kind of nonsense, really. They put such high value in generic words and descriptive text but yet don't want to apply that same rationale to domain extensions?

You want people to find your site how? direct type ins?

And thus goes the same for internet usage.

If the internet stayed so small that only X number of people used it, then no problem. But the problem is the internet is growing up and domainers don't want to grow up with it.

Too much inbreeding, I think. Too much Hail to the same gods and gurus and their holy gospels. Too much, "repeat after me..."

I am constantly amazed that an industry that derives its total business and revenue from names is opposed to names.

Just don't put words in my mouth. When did I want to be on your team? When did I say anything about iPhone? When did I even say .com will ALWAYS be the ONLY way to connect?]

Dude, do you know what "figuratively speaking" is?

Need I quantify every statement I make?

I surely can.

Try this one on...not a single person here would be hand picked to be on any team or project that I have to be part of.

Thank God people on this forum are not part of anything even close to resembling decision makers for consumer and consumer products and services.

But the more aggressively you defend .mobi

Seems like I am also defending other extensions and, moreover, extensions that do not even exist yet.

Suddenly, domainers are all working in a damn abortion clinic.

Hey, no big deal. Remember the threads here in 2004 calling for the abortion of .mobi even before it has a chance to be born?

Do I agree with every new extension? No.

Do they have a right to exist? As every right as any other extension.

Does the internet have to remain a virtual boring, static place? No.

Do I have to reg the same domain extension I was handregging in 1995? No.

Think small - stay small.

I am guilty of trying to open up eyes and minds to emerging ideas, technologies, and markets. Problem is 99% of the people here do not want to venture out of their safe zone or away from their domain alter without consulting the tea leaves and domain soothsayers before making a decision.

All I can say is get ready for a shakeup like you, me, or the internet has never experienced. It is going to be huge and it is going to be dreadful for many.