.mobi Developers and Lovers - Tell Me About This

[sashas]

Before one of you starts with your BS again, answer one question of mine that I don't quite understand.


Suppose I have a domain, Movies.mobi
I develop it into a large website.

Now what if someone tries to access my website, Movies.mobi from his PC? Will he see the mobile version, or will he see a full fledged PC website?

I went to AirFrance.mobi from my PC. I got a mobile website.
I went to Bofa.mobi from my PC. I got a mobile website again.
I went to SalvationArmy.mobi from my PC. I again got a mobile website with a button to "go to full graphics version".



You could always say that the visitor can be redirected to the .com of your site.

But what if you don't own the .com of your website? You own Movies.mobi, but you don't own Movies.com, so does the visitor on the PC have to be content with the mobile website? How do you make him resolve automatically to a full fledged graphics website?

If you put in some sort of auto detection mechanism, and the visitor sees a full fledged graphics website on .mobi, would it not dilute the .mobi branding?

Pretty much every .mobi site announced here on this forum shows a mobile site on my PC. Thats fine when you own the .com version to; PC visitors could just go to the .com. But when you don't own the .com (and most won't own the same keyword in .com), what do you do?


This question may have been asked in the past, but I don't know of it (and many others wouldn't either).

You can post smartass/insults, but I expect a decent answer because honestly, I don't know too much about development, less so about .mobi development. It would even help your .mobi brethren.

[iDName]

.

[mjnels]

i win.

[zenlogo]

I think you have to think outside of your (PC) box.
.mobi is about mobility, like cell phones.
It's not intended for PC users.
Global internet users: 1.08 billion
Global cellphone users: 2.11 billion
Which is growing way faster?: cellphones

Here in HongKong we were surfing the net on cellphones long before steve thought of iphone.

.mobi is not about domain speculators reging names like findsomegreattuneshere.mobi and getting upset because they can't flog it in a forum.

.mobi is for companies wanting to reach celsurfers and for celsurfers who want to reach a cel-friendly site. period

[sashas]

.mobi is about mobility, like cell phones.
It's not intended for PC users.

So what if PC users want to use your .mobi site? You can't ban them, can you?


And btw, the mobile numbers are a bit skewed currently because:
1. Many people own multiple mobiles
2. There are usually fewer computers than mobiles in a family. In a family of four with 2 teenage kids, there can be more than 4 mobiles. But there wouldn't be more than 4 computers.

[iDName]

Sashas, why don't you just wait and see if .mobi takes off and then buy some names?

[think]

Sashas,

Wurfl technology that detects what kind of device a customer is using can be used by either Dot com or dot Mobi sites to create a screen size that fits the appropriate device be it a cell phone, PDA, or PC size screen.

Basically you can use any TLD for Mobile web surfing. Dot Mobi just GUARANTEES that a mobile search will fit your MOBILE screen and is more apt to give results relating to a mobile search. IF all TLDs included mobile material and wurfl technology there would be no use to use MOBI. But, since all TLDs are not required to fit mobile devices and there is no GUARANTEE that the Dot Com or other TLD will give you mobile content Dot Mobi is the TLD that was created to give the best viewing experience for mobile users.

Some, but by no means all, MOBI developers are using wurfl so PC users get a full screen when they go to a Mobi domain. Dot Mobi also focusses on the needs and mind set of the mobile search where it may not be considered by the developer of a PC based TLD.

It's really that simple. People can argue till they are blue in the face whether dot Mobi will succeed based on this mind set but it doesn't matter. Either developers and companies will develop relevant and compelling mobile content on dot Mobi domains that consumers will use or it will go slowly fade away.

Personally I think what people will search for by mobile devices will be inherently different than what and how people will search on a PC. Some stuff will overlap. Some will be completely different.

In a nut shell Dot Mobi says to mobile users "This site will work on your cell phone and this information is tailored to your mobile search needs." The more intuitive Mobi developers will use wurlf tech to give Pc users a full screen experience as well.

[Fearless]

Dot Mobi just GUARANTEES that a mobile search will fit your MOBILE screen and is more apt to give results relating to a mobile search.

Do you really think mobi tld is checking every registration and doing anything about it if a site is not compliant?

[Devil Dog]

Do you really think mobi tld is checking every registration and doing anything about it if a site is not compliant?

Negative.

[think]

Do you really think mobi tld is checking every registration and doing anything about it if a site is not compliant?

Currently no. It is still very early. Will they in the future? I think they will as it will be in the best interest of the TLD. Will they miss some? Probably. No ones perfect.

Overall I think the Mobi GUARANTEE of compatibility will be solid and consumers will get the viewing experience they were hoping for.

What more can one ask for than a best effort by the MTLD registry and Mobi developers?

[sashas]

Sashas, why don't you just wait and see if .mobi takes off and then buy some names?

IDName, even you can't deny that the .mobi market is highly inflated right now. If I were to even buy some, I would wait until that settles down.



Think: I had other concerns if you were using auto detection, mainly dilution of branding and loss of traffic to .com (which would be much more with .mob than with something like .net)

I've raised them up in another thread and got some answers.

For now, I'll ask just one simple question: if you don't own the .com of your .mobi, then the only way you can make your website viewable to the PC audience is to use auto detection.

So browser auto detection essentially becomes a necessity.

But think about it. Instead of using the .mobi as the main site and autodetecting for the PC, which I have been told has its flaws, why is it not better to use a .com (or another extension) and autodetect for the .mobi?

Its one and the same thing, but if you use a .com as your main site and autodetect for the mobile, then you're at least ensuring that you don't lose the currently much larger PC audience.

Its simply a matter of catering to the larger market.

Auto detection is not flawless, I assume, and you would have some flaws if you autodetect for the PC, or for the mobile. So if you have to use this feature, why not make your main site on an extension that caters to the bigger market?



This is simple logistics here.
Things change, of course, if you also own the .com of your .mobi. But not everyone can do that. In that scenario, I would want to make sure my site if viewable to the larger audience...its all about catching eyeballs at the end of the day.


So there is what I believe, the central flaw to making .mobi your main site. Its all cool if you're putting up a few pages, but if you're spending a million bucks, you have to make sure that you get every visitor, every lead.

[think]

IDName, even you can't deny that the .mobi market is highly inflated right now. If I were to even buy some, I would wait until that settles down.



Think: I had other concerns if you were using auto detection, mainly dilution of branding and loss of traffic to .com (which would be much more with .mob than with something like .net)

I've raised them up in another thread and got some answers.

For now, I'll ask just one simple question: if you don't own the .com of your .mobi, then the only way you can make your website viewable to the PC audience is to use auto detection.

So browser auto detection essentially becomes a necessity.

But think about it. Instead of using the .mobi as the main site and autodetecting for the PC, which I have been told has its flaws, why is it not better to use a .com (or another extension) and autodetect for the .mobi?

Its one and the same thing, but if you use a .com as your main site and autodetect for the mobile, then you're at least ensuring that you don't lose the currently much larger PC audience.

Its simply a matter of catering to the larger market.

Auto detection is not flawless, I assume, and you would have some flaws if you autodetect for the PC, or for the mobile. So if you have to use this feature, why not make your main site on an extension that caters to the bigger market?



This is simple logistics here.
Things change, of course, if you also own the .com of your .mobi. But not everyone can do that. In that scenario, I would want to make sure my site if viewable to the larger audience...its all about catching eyeballs at the end of the day.


So there is what I believe, the central flaw to making .mobi your main site. Its all cool if you're putting up a few pages, but if you're spending a million bucks, you have to make sure that you get every visitor, every lead.

Obviously you had your mind made up before asking the question. You consider that there is no difference in the type of things people will search for by mobile device and PC and the ways they search will be the same as well. So you have answered your own question based on the criteria you have chosen.

From your response this is the criteria you seem to be laying out:

1. Mobile searchers are looking for the same information as PC searchers.

2. ALL Com owners and other TLDs WILL make sites that detect mobile devices and won't tie up the users bandwidth and time on the cellphone.

3. People don't like searching on a mobile phone because it CURRENTLY lacks the quality of PC search and this isn't going to change.

4. People can't do things to make mobile search more friendly (like audio based information and pay per call options) for a mobile user and must use the same formats as a PC search.


You might want to rethink all of these points of view or just stick to the other TLDs as Dot Mobi will fail based on the criteria above. If you think the bulk of the people looking for your site and information will be on PCs then by all means just stick to a Dot com and do the wurfl redirect. If you think many people will look for the information you have will come from the emerging mobile internet then you might want to invest in a good Mobi. I don't know what else to tell you.

Wishing you peace and prosperity,

C.T Kirkpatrick

aka: Think

[Fearless]

Currently no. It is still very early. Will they in the future? I think they will as it will be in the best interest of the TLD. Will they miss some? Probably. No ones perfect.

Overall I think the Mobi GUARANTEE of compatibility will be solid and consumers will get the viewing experience they were hoping for.

What more can one ask for than a best effort by the MTLD registry and Mobi developers?

Everything with mobi tld seems to be "you just wait". Once mobi tld dumps the rest of the keyword mobis they held back and they see a very poor renewal rate, they won't waste money doing all these things we're supposed to just wait for.

[think]

Everything with mobi tld seems to be "you just wait". Once mobi tld dumps the rest of the keyword mobis they held back and they see a very poor renewal rate, they won't waste money doing all these things we're supposed to just wait for.

How many times did we here this in the early days with Dot Com Fearless? When I started investing in Dot Com the late 90's I heard these kind of arguments daily. Remember how some people would even say that domain names would soon be obsolete? That was ten years ago.

In fact I heard these arguments well into the double odds as well but that didn't stop me from learning, researching, and investing my time and money in dot Com.. Time will tell and maybe you will be right. Then again maybe you won't............

[Fearless]

How many times did we here this in the early days with Dot Com Fearless? When I started investing in Dot Com the late 90's I heard these kind of arguments daily. In fact I heard these arguments well into the double odds as well but that didn't stop me from learning, researching, and investing my time and money in dot Com.. Time will tell and maybe you will be right. Then again maybe you won't............

I can't wait to say "I told you so". I predict Vision and Doc Com will be still saying "You just wait" 5 years from now.

[think]

I can't wait to say "I told you so". I predict Vision and Doc Com will be still saying "You just wait" 5 years from now.

You're already saying that over and over again. It's getting pretty old. Don't you have anything positive to add to domain investing anymore?

[Gerry]

I can't wait to say "I told you so". I predict Vision and Doc Com will be still saying "You just wait" 5 years from now.

Naw, no need to wait.

5 years from now I might say,

What the hell took you so long to even look at a .mobi web site?

[Fearless]

You're already saying that over and over again. It's getting pretty old. Don't you have anything positive to add to domain investing anymore?

The 2 things I see positive about .mobi are that some domainers made a killing flipping them and a ton of wannabe domainers got the thrill of regging names that for a short while made them think they were very smart and successful.

The downside, now those new Namepro members that maxed out their credit cards to buy worthless .mobis are now left holding the bag. People like you keep telling them to just wait. Next crisis for them is renewal time. Maybe they will have their credit cards paid down enough to renew the crap .mobis. They're likely to do it because of yours and others cheery .mobi outlook.

[Poker]

Don't you have anything positive to add to domain investing anymore?

If I were investing in anything I would consider it "positive" advice when someone with experience and no vested interest in my activity offered their advice.

[Raider]

Overall I think the Mobi GUARANTEE of compatibility will be solid and consumers will get the viewing experience they were hoping for.

You can build .mobi compliant web site using any TLD correct? Are you saying .mobi is necessary because it GUARANTEES compatibility?