COLLAPSE OF the MOBI & IDN MARKETS -- the aftermath

[MobileDesigner]

stepping out of one's house,
stepping out of one's town,
stepping out of one's city,
stepping out of one's state/prefecture,
stepping out of one's country...

would indeed enlighten one's perspective of how things operate differently than what one was used to. Similar to "stepping out of the box".
IDns and .mobis are new (+/- ? years). Seems as if a king (those who think that idns and .mobis are useless) were telling his people that the world was still flat. Obviously a lot of us sailed around the world and can see that the world is NOT flat and we come back here to dnforum to tell the king and his people that the world is not flat...... yet the king continues to tell his people that the world is flat. little by little and within time, the people will leave their king and journey with us around the world and outside of the castle.

 

[dn-101]

Olney used to be a King. He set up his own shop and told his folks to reg Japanese .biz
They invested tons of dough in that enterprise - and we all know what happened next. :asleep:

 

[bwhhisc]

stepping out of one's house,
stepping out of one's town,
stepping out of one's city,
stepping out of one's state/prefecture,
stepping out of one's country...

would indeed enlighten one's perspective of how things operate differently than what one was used to. Similar to "stepping out of the box".
IDns and .mobis are new (+/- ? years). Seems as if a king (those who think that idns and .mobis are useless) were telling his people that the world was still flat. Obviously a lot of us sailed around the world and can see that the world is NOT flat and we come back here to dnforum to tell the king and his people that the world is not flat...... yet the king continues to tell his people that the world is flat. little by little and within time, the people will leave their king and journey with us around the world and outside of the castle.

Nice message...especially for those that have followed the 10+ year ride for IDN development and implementation. Those that have persevered in holding their premium IDNs since 2000', 2001' and on are certainly looking forward to 2010 as ICANN finally moves the complete IDN project (including idn.idn) to implementation and launch.

 

[Gerry]

Im gonna put up and shut up. If anyone cannot put up evidence that idn and .mobi are useless, what you write is only based solely on your opinion and not facts.

Nice presentation.

Even with "evidence" things are just not "evident" to many.

And, as if the internet was not going to be confusing enough, mTLD has already made steps into IDN.mobi.

 

[Rubber Duck]

Olney used to be a King. He set up his own shop and told his folks to reg Japanese .biz
They invested tons of dough in that enterprise - and we all know what happened next. :asleep:

I always advised against this but there did appear to be some mileage in developing Minisites for a brief period as Yahoo.jp was promoting IDN within its Search Listings. Then for some reason it all suddenly shut down. It seems that IDN were so hot in terms of SEO that it was felt something needed to be done. Obviously for PPC IDN.biz in Japanese is not going anywhere. There is precious little type in of any kind coming out of Japan, but all that could change with IDN.biz. As for Olney, yes who knows what happened to him, but I could understand some people being misled of IDN.biz. The weirdest thing was that it would seem the Snows actually started buying some. Why? Search me, but one feels they must have been reading IDNF.

 

[Gerry]

stepping out of one's house,
stepping out of one's town,
stepping out of one's city,
stepping out of one's state/prefecture,
stepping out of one's country...

It is apparent that many do not do this. All they can see is what is on the screen before them.

Years ago I wrote about China's influence on the internet, beginning with Google bowing down to their demands of censorship for the sake of Google getting into the Chinese market.

And I also remember many saying they could care less with what China does.

Point is, if ICANN does not move full speed on IDN and delays it for any reason, China will form their own internet. All the pieces are in place thanks to the preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

 

[Rubber Duck]

Nice presentation.

Even with "evidence" things are just not "evident" to many.

And, as if the internet was not going to be confusing enough, mTLD has already made steps into IDN.mobi.

Details of tie up with Keyword service Huarui are here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS16461+14-Oct-2009+PRN20091014

I suppose it could be the formation of unstoppable combination, but to me it smacks more of Yahoo and Microsoft trying to join forces to take on Google. It would seem that Huarui recognise the threat that IDN pose to their business and are desperately trying to counter, whilst dot Mobi must be desperate for any edge they can get in the Chinese Mobile Browsing Market which was the biggest in the World long before they showed up.

It is apparent that many do not do this. All they can see is what is on the screen before them.

Years ago I wrote about China's influence on the internet, beginning with Google bowing down to their demands of censorship for the sake of Google getting into the Chinese market.

And I also remember many saying they could care less with what China does.

Point is, if ICANN does not move full speed on IDN and delays it for any reason, China will form their own internet. All the pieces are in place thanks to the preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Well the result will be out next week but many will be so ensconced at TRAFFIC they probably won't even be aware.

 

[mulligan]

I always advised against this but there did appear to be some mileage in developing Minisites for a brief period as Yahoo.jp was promoting IDN within its Search Listings. Then for some reason it all suddenly shut down.

Not entirely shut down, I have several Japanese sites using a variety of extensions (Not minisites as such, all have hundreds of pages) and these do well. Good ranking on yahoo.jp, plenty of traffic.
Yes, Yahoo did stomp on a lot of 4 page minisites but I found that with a little effort 2 or 3 years ago I have been reaping the rewards ever since (Multiples in the 1000's compared to parking)

 

[George Verdugo]

stepping out of one's house,
stepping out of one's town,
stepping out of one's city,
stepping out of one's state/prefecture,
stepping out of one's country...

would indeed enlighten one's perspective of how things operate differently than what one was used to. Similar to "stepping out of the box".
IDns and .mobis are new (+/- ? years). Seems as if a king (those who think that idns and .mobis are useless) were telling his people that the world was still flat. Obviously a lot of us sailed around the world and can see that the world is NOT flat and we come back here to dnforum to tell the king and his people that the world is not flat...... yet the king continues to tell his people that the world is flat. little by little and within time, the people will leave their king and journey with us around the world and outside of the castle.

yea its a mobile site and im getting traffic too.. who is saying mobi dead. i think the y are in for a big suprise when people are no longer going to carry their laptops anymore, everybody dont have an iphone or smart phone thats why people say that mobi is dead. well i have an iphone with unlimited minutes and internet and i surf all day long and .mobi sites are 100% more better than the com"s or Net's.

 

[bwhhisc]

Point is, if ICANN does not move full speed on IDN and delays it for any reason, China will form their own internet.

12 years after beginning the IDN project, the dates are set, the technicals testing is done, the fast track program is in place, and the players are on the field.

Domaining history about to repeat itself. Only this time its is with IDN domain names, instead of ASCII domain names. The IDN opportunity is akin to being "back in 1998" with all the knowledge of history over the last decade.

Many will miss the 2nd greatest opportunity in domaining in their lifetime, an opportunity that will NEVER repeat itself again.

 

[DomainsInc]

yea its a mobile site and im getting traffic too.. who is saying mobi dead. i think the y are in for a big suprise when people are no longer going to carry their laptops anymore, everybody dont have an iphone or smart phone thats why people say that mobi is dead. well i have an iphone with unlimited minutes and internet and i surf all day long and .mobi sites are 100% more better than the com"s or Net's.

Auto detect could change this as full size sites suck to navigate from blackberry's or iphones. constant zoom in, zoom out, scroll left to right, up and down. I was without a car and needed to know what bus route to take to get home the other day. I tried octranspo.com, and the site didn't even work with my blackberry pearl. Then I remembered reading about octranspo.mobi. Sure enough, it worked like a charm and I was home in no time. The same thing could have been achieved with auto detect though but if a site doesn't have that, i always look for a .mobi. Sites need to have mobile versions though, most definitely.

 

[Gerry]

12 years after beginning the IDN project, the dates are set, the technicals testing is done, the fast track program is in place, and the players are on the field.

Domaining history about to repeat itself. Only this time its is with IDN domain names, instead of ASCII domain names. The IDN opportunity is akin to being "back in 1998" with all the knowledge of history over the last decade.

I am aware of and have been following the fast track process on ICANN and a couple other domain sites/blogs.

That is why I say any delay or postponement will not sit well.

China and India are the two biggest markets by population. I would be interested in hearing what some of our Indian members anticipate with the changes IDN will bring.

constant zoom in, zoom out, scroll left to right, up and down.

That is what my wife found annoying with the iPod Touch. She was reading a story in the doctors office, just something to pass her time.

She could not stand all the finger work needed to view something.

I showed her a site, AesopsFables dot mobi, and she liked that site much better in comparison.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, Aesops Fables dot mobi is one of my sites and I am aware (now) of a couple of broken links.

 

[MobileDesigner]

.mobi launch was in perfect timing.

there were some doubts (even I had some doubt) about its effectiveness and its demand when it all started in 2006, but I feel more comfortable accessing a .mobi than a .com via mobile. come to think about the money that i saved entering a domain with .mobi for the past 3 years, I saved a lot.

Still not all companies, larger or small, have a .mobi. Seems that there are a lot of old dogs thinking that people only access desktop computers. So old. I compare these companies (those without .mobi) with those who still have mullets.

Mullets rule! :undecided:

 

[mattbodis]

.mobi launch was in perfect timing.

there were some doubts (even I had some doubt) about its effectiveness and its demand when it all started in 2006, but I feel more comfortable accessing a .mobi than a .com via mobile. come to think about the money that i saved entering a domain with .mobi for the past 3 years, I saved a lot.

Still not all companies, larger or small, have a .mobi. Seems that there are a lot of old dogs thinking that people only access desktop computers. So old. I compare these companies (those without .mobi) with those who still have mullets.

Mullets rule! :undecided:

Ok based on this post and other posts in this thread, I come to the conclusion that MOST people that think .mobi will succeed, also think that launching a mobile site is possible ONLY from a .mobi domain.

The truth is, mobile sites can be launched from any domain and any TLD. .mobi has no bearing on what type of site you want to launch (desktop or mobile). You can launch a desktop site on .mobi, and vice-versa. It is all based on the HTML + design of the site, not the TLD itself.

I think half this industry thinks that mobile sites are only possible on .mobi domains. If this is the case, then it's sad that so many speculators are putting down money for .mobi domains yet don't take a few minutes to look up how the world-wide-web actually functions.

 

[Gerry]

The truth is, mobile sites can be launched from any domain and any TLD. .mobi has no bearing on what type of site you want to launch (desktop or mobile). You can launch a desktop site on .mobi, and vice-versa. It is all based on the HTML + design of the site, not the TLD itself.

I agree. As I pointed out and asked earlier, then why are they not doing it? Why have they not done it?


Why is it, after the fact of the .mobi release, many are saying, "I can do that on any extension"?

My question would be, "then why haven't you?" With 4.5 billion mobile phones in use, what more incentive do you need to make a mobile site? Or to make an existing site mobile?

Again, waiting on technology (auto detect, HTML browsing on a device) is not an answer to what the market wants now. And waiting for everyone to have that new technology in their hands is not the answer. None of that is the answer if this "mobile" site thing can be done now. Those are not reasons for not having a mobile site. Those are excuses for not having a site that is mobile.

I agree and I can also do it. I can make a .com mobile. A .net, a .org, a .us...and it will work on every device out there - PC's Laptops, PDA's, Mobile Devices, netbooks - anything web enabled. I can do that right now. I do not need to wait on any device or technology to come out.

.mobi is an extension that denotes that a site is mobile. That is what it is saying...this works on mobile devices. No other extension gives you that connotation. No other extension out there even remotely says a site is mobile.

If everyone wants to wait until everyone has a device in their hands that can auto detect or wait until every one has an iPhone device, then thats fine.

Wait.

 

[seanboy]

I agree. As I pointed out and asked earlier, then why are they not doing it? Why have they not done it?

Again, for the umpteenth time, they already are.

Why is it, after the fact of the .mobi release, many are saying, "I can do that on any extension"?

Again, This was a known fact way before .mobi launched, and a has been in use for years.

Again, waiting on technology (auto detect, HTML browsing on a device) is not an answer to what the market wants now. And waiting for everyone to have that new technology in their hands is not the answer. None of that is the answer if this "mobile" site thing can be done now. Those are not reasons for not having a mobile site. Those are excuses for not having a site that is mobile.

I agree and I can also do it. I can make a .com mobile. A .net, a .org, a .us...and it will work on every device out there - PC's Laptops, PDA's, Mobile Devices, netbooks - anything web enabled. I can do that right now. I do not need to wait on any device or technology to come out.

.mobi is an extension that denotes that a site is mobile. That is what it is saying...this works on mobile devices. No other extension gives you that connotation. No other extension out there even remotely says a site is mobile.

If everyone wants to wait until everyone has a device in their hands that can auto detect or wait until every one has an iPhone device, then thats fine.

Wait.

What are you talking about? Nobody is waiting on anything. The most popular sites on the web that have mobile versions use this method NOW. User-agent detection is not a feature that needs to be supported by phones. Its determined by your code. The code you use is what gathers the user-agent of the browser accessing your site, and whether or not the device is a mobile phone. It has nothing to do with being a "feature" that must be supported by your phone in order to work.

You continue to speak as if .mobi is some kind of technical specification. It isn't, and never will be. This is a technical specification. .Mobi is nothing but a domain extension, supported by one hell of a marketing team.

 

[Gerry]

Again, for the umpteenth time, they already are.
Then Just Do it!

Again, This was a known fact way before .mobi launched, and a has been in use for years.
Then Just Do it!

You continue to speak as if .mobi is some kind of technical specification. It isn't, and never will be.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Go back and re-read what I posted above.

Those are excuses we have heard for years now, are they not?

This device was going to be the final nail in the coffin, etc, etc, etc?

Just wait for this, wait for that...

 

[George Verdugo]

i love my iphone3gs its my office ,my game room , video camera ,my ipod,my recorder, my gps , and lastly i look for .mobi only because it clean and reader friendly. go . mobi

 

[seanboy]

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Go back and re-read what I posted above.

Those are excuses we have heard for years now, are they not?

This device was going to be the final nail in the coffin, etc, etc, etc?

Just wait for this, wait for that...

What part of "they already are" do you not understand?

I just laid out for you, again, the reasons why .mobi isn't a technical standard, what device detection is, and how it is already being used. All you have done is 1) ask why aren't they already doing it (again, they already are), 2) prove that you don't understand what device detection really is, 3) call developers ignorant for actually knowing what the hell they are doing, and 4) continue to speak about mtld as if they are W3C. Your responses are like you never even bothered to take the time to read any of my posts. Therefore I'm done. I don't have time for this. Believe what you want.

 

[mattbodis]

http://richardkmiller.com/203/will-mobi-get-any-traction

Here are my 9 reasons why .mobi is a bad idea:

1. You can already serve mobile content from any subdomain or folder, like mobi.example.com or example.com/mobi
2. You can already use content negotiation. If the browser says “Accept: text/vnd.wap.wml”, then return mobile content.
3. You can already use the “handheld” media type in your CSS.
4. You can already create light-weight, semantic HTML that can be viewed on multiple devices.
5. Since “mobi” isn’t a word, it’s not likely to be in the predictive text dictionary on most phones. A good domain for phones would employ a real word. (Actually .com works.)
6. Without predictive text, typing “mobi” on a phone means pressing 6, then waiting, then 6-2-4. A good domain for phones would not use two adjacent letters on the same key.
7. Phones with QWERTY keyboards are likely to have full-fledged browsers that can view .com websites anyway.
8. Dot-mobi domains are expensive.
9. Browsers like Opera can rerender existing web sites to make them viewable on movable devices.