Has Anyone Actually visited a .mobi site?

Spade · 10-31-2006, 10:59 PM

Ok... with recent sales its obvious that people are excited about the .mobi TLD - however my question is has anyone been to a .mobi site? or used one from there cell phones?

Maybe its just me, but I never quite got this TLD - I understand the concept, but maybe I just think its overated?

Is .mobi truely useful? You Tell me!

RegFee · 10-31-2006, 11:10 PM

This thread will probably get moved to the .mobi forum.

I'm assuming .mobi will be the standard extension built into future phones. That way, you just have to type "flowers" and "flowers.mobi" will pop up, and you know it will be a site made for mobile surfing (mostly text, small size).
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/253077-has-anyone-actually-visited-mobi-site.html

It's not that useful to me, because I have Opera Mini on my phone, and it renders any site into a smaller format, but for the phones that don't have that much memory or can't Opera Mini, it is a good deal. A lot of people still have pay-per-kb internet access too, so if they want to check, say, the weather, do you think they'd rather to go to weatherchannel.com and instantly get bombarded with a 50kb page, or weather.mobi and get a 500byte page?

Spade · 10-31-2006, 11:23 PM

Now I can understand that and it makes sense. But how much longer will people be paying for bandwith usage on cell phones? It seems to me many of the services are offering unlimited broadband... with these internet phones turning into PC's - you can run the fully functional sites on your phone, right? So why the .mobi TLD?

JasMate · 10-31-2006, 11:59 PM

Originally Posted by domainspade

So why the .mobi TLD?

Money Money Money

????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077
It is all about business and the .mobi extension is doing GOOD business. Doesn't matter if you like it or hate it, or know of an better way to surf the net via cell phone, you can't get past that fact that .mobi is making money for everybody and will most likely be the future .com

dgridley · 11-01-2006, 12:33 AM

Never been to a .mobi site.. and I wonder how many are actually devved in a cell phone friendly format anyway..

I'm normally quite a forward thinker but I think only a select few will be the ones to make any real money with (premium) .mobi, and I certainly don't see it supplanting the more established domain ext. Like any new ext toy, there are thousands who will let their regs drop when it comes time because they snapped to their senses and realized bbgun.mobi isn't relevant.

Originally Posted by JasMate

and will most likely be the future .com

MinionDH · 11-01-2006, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by dgridley

Like any new ext toy, there are thousands who will let their regs drop when it comes time because they snapped to their senses and realized bbgun.mobi isn't relevant.

I couldn't agree with you more.

dgridley · 11-01-2006, 01:01 AM

I love when people say that!

????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077

Originally Posted by MinionDH

I couldn't agree with you more.

GoDesign · 11-01-2006, 01:18 AM

Originally Posted by domainspade

Ok... with recent sales its obvious that people are excited about the .mobi TLD - however my question is has anyone been to a .mobi site? or used one from there cell phones?
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077

Maybe its just me, but I never quite got this TLD - I understand the concept, but maybe I just think its overated?

Is .mobi truely useful? You Tell me!

New format standards and guidelines to how .mobi may be used will make it useful. Thats a first in any new TLD,after .com, which was the first standard.

iNod · 11-01-2006, 01:42 AM

I have, my theatre got its company name.mobi and it is better than typing mobile.theatre.com

- Steve

c4smok · 11-01-2006, 02:33 AM

I really think .mobi is 6 years too late... and already out of date =/

panman · 11-01-2006, 03:16 AM

A lot of work needs to be done to get .mobi off the ground. The top generic words held in the pool, auctioned off and developed over time should assist in it's popularity.(more content helpful than .com -we hope) When this happens people will be more inclined to surf on-the-go, but not before telco prices tumble (which I think will happen in a few yrs).

Have I browsed .mobi sites, answer is very little. Google has been no help to me, which has been a little dissapointing. Then again these domains have only just started. Mmmm patience i think we need For the time being!!!

Overall I do believe that many people will eventually surf the net for info on their Cell phones...

Spade · 11-01-2006, 08:51 AM

Panman -

Im not disagreeing with you that people will begin to search the web using there cell's. Im simply asking will they be searching using .mobi? I guess the point or question in this thread is - "Will .mobi be a success?" I agree with c4smok - I think its too late. A few years ago absolutely. But with broadband becomming affordable on treo phones (plenty others too) I dont see any reason to visit a .mobi extension.

compubahn · 11-01-2006, 09:43 AM

It really depends on the device.

I tried surfing on my Moto e815 & it was a disaster. If I felt that was the target audience, I would not have regged even one .mobi.

After I recently upgraded to a pda phone, I bought more .mobis. There is something to this. Only a small percentage of "standard" websites even approach usability with a phone or pda. Sites designed to detect mobiles & redirect or those built for .mobi are quite usable though.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077

That said, I don't think mobile use will be limited to "ringtone" type names nor will it follow desktop habits 100% due to limitations in screen size.

I do think .mobi will be a success. To what degree, I am not sure... Definitely worth a gamble IMO provided it is not the mortgage money. If the extension becomes the standard for mobiles (keyword + go = keyword.mobi) there won't be much debate anymore.

dgridley · 11-01-2006, 10:31 AM

If you could just type in the keyword, it would be great but then any ext would do... unless I'm misunderstanding you.. btw- my main concerns are the average cell user never uses the added features on their phone. The percentage who EVER use their phone for the web is very small.. as I've stated elsewhere, I've never used the internet via my cell and am never likely to.. I suspect I'm not alone.

Originally Posted by compubahn

It really depends on the device.

I tried surfing on my Moto e815 & it was a disaster. If I felt that was the target audience, I would not have regged even one .mobi.

After I recently upgraded to a pda phone, I bought more .mobis. There is something to this. Only a small percentage of "standard" websites even approach usability with a phone or pda. Sites designed to detect mobiles & redirect or those built for .mobi are quite usable though.

That said, I don't think mobile use will be limited to "ringtone" type names nor will it follow desktop habits 100% due to limitations in screen size.

I do think .mobi will be a success. To what degree, I am not sure... Definitely worth a gamble IMO provided it is not the mortgage money. If the extension becomes the standard for mobiles (keyword + go = keyword.mobi) there won't be much debate anymore.

vcool · 11-01-2006, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by dgridley

I've never used the internet via my cell and am never likely to.. I suspect I'm not alone.

Never say never again!. You probably know IBM's story, the IBM chief predicted that the world wide requirment for PC is just 3 at the most. And now we have 3 PC's in one home.

The way I see it is that as mobile device become more powerful compared to PC, people will start using more mobile devices then PC ( as it happens with mainframes to workstations and then to PCs). The dinosaures of the would has to die. Mobile devices has the advantage of portability and instant "ON", which PC's lags.

Regarding .mobi's, they will become defult for mobile devices. The reason is that the mobile browers will support xhtml sites only and all the .com sites are not xhtml and not designed to fit the mobile screen, so the navigation is difficult. People can make there site dynamic to switch for mobile, but if the user knows for sure that .mobi will display properly and .com may or may not, he may go for .mobi to save time and frustration.

MCDomains · 11-01-2006, 01:20 PM

I own plenty of .mobi's but I don't use internet on my phone...

BUT .. I will starting next week since I'll have a Crackberry!
I'll be all over the .mobi's!

c4smok · 11-01-2006, 03:25 PM

I do not want to burst anybodies bubble on this whole craze.. But as a web developer and programer, I see no point to. mobi. If you want me to go more in-depth just ask =P

domainacrobat · 11-01-2006, 04:39 PM

IMO .mobi has something going for it. I have t-mobile. They include the ability to go on the net free to their mobile site only. If I want a junk ringtone it costs $2.99 and horrible wallpaper is $.99. It is only $5.99 a month to surf .mobis, and if I could have access to all the latest, cheapest ringtones, wallpaper, and animations I might actually customize my phone. T-mobile is on the process of launching WIFI phone service, this will exponentially increase the amount of phones with internet access since they will want to make Voip calls. I am certain internet and voip will start to work their way into standard plans just the way text messages are virtually free. I cannot surf the web from my phone, but I can surf .mobis with ease. I think at first the ringtone, and download sites will be the most successful. Then as more useful .mobis are indexed and there is a major database it will become more and more useable. I can understand that some people dont see the relevance, why not make site like MyMobileDL.com a normal .com into a small site formated for a mobile device. Because it wil be way to hard to surf the web trying to locate these specific formatted sites within the billions of websites that currently exist. It will cut down on spam names, and create certainty for users. Thats all customers want, certainty, they want to be able to find what they want when they want 100 percent of the time. .Mobi is very useful IMO.

c4smok · 11-01-2006, 10:49 PM

A website can have the ability to adapt to what device its being viewed on..

If the website has customers from a mobile device it can change and conform to the ability to be seen in a mobile friendly format..

That is my whole case with mobi... also I can see problems with people regging .mobi's of people who already run the .com.. I can see a bunch of trademark issues going for the same customers and all..

It is a waste of a domain extension, and possibly a domain extension controlled by major mobile phone companies could be a threat to an independent net itself.

Carlton · 11-02-2006, 12:02 AM

Originally Posted by domainacrobat

...Thats all customers want, certainty, they want to be able to find what they want when they want 100 percent of the time. .Mobi is very useful IMO.

MinionDH · 11-02-2006, 12:55 AM

Quote:

A website can have the ability to adapt to what device its being viewed on..

True.. but what are users supposed to type in? It's a guessing game:
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077

wap.domain.com
domain.com/wap
mobile.domain.com
domain.com/mobile

OR how about:

.mobi

danmanmktng · 11-02-2006, 08:27 AM

The other thing to consider is that even though websites can detect you're on a mobile and send you to a page accordingly -- you may WANT to go to the .com version of a site on your phone. Almost surely sites will want to have content on the .com that's not available on the .mobi and vice-versa.

Danilla · 11-02-2006, 09:07 AM

Here, in Latvia huge percent of people are using Mobile Internet, as the largest Latvia community website has a version, designed for mobile phones. So, this is an example, how one website can create a new culture.
True, the site has no mobi extension, but all we need for mobi to become popular is several large web sites, that will teach people to use .mobi. Now we have live.mobi, google.mobi, msn.mobi, and imagine, if we had ebay.mobi, youtube.mobi and some more. Where would you go then when surfing from mobile?
The point is that I tried to surf on my mobile lots of times, but most common result was bad, cause most website are not designed for it, but when there will be more .mobi websites, I will know, where I'll go next!

Originally Posted by c4smok

A website can have the ability to adapt to what device its being viewed on..

If the website has customers from a mobile device it can change and conform to the ability to be seen in a mobile friendly format..

Yes, they can, but mostly they do not do it!

dgridley · 11-02-2006, 09:59 AM

I don't think most businesses/websites bother with a mobile friendly format simply because the demand is not there for 90% of the sites. How many times would you use your mobile to access info about tropical fish, lawn seed, fresh fruit, or genealogy? I don't see this changing anytime (read: years) soon, if ever.

Take a look at some of the SIGs here on NamePros that have .mobi's.. 99% are total dreck IMO.

When might "I" be tempted to use a .mobi site? There have been times I might have liked to check my bank balance or check an auction on eBay.. I can see that being useful.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077

But the key to the success of .mobi is not buying the domain and sitting on it.. it's development. Until the general public is aware of .mobi and can actually make use of it, it will never catch on in total.

Not to mention, there may be millions upon millions who own cell phones, but the percentage who use mobile internet, or even know how to use it, or have access to it, are very small. Anyone have actual figures?

That's just my opinion..

vcool · 11-02-2006, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by dgridley

But the key to the success of .mobi is not buying the domain and sitting on it.. it's development. Until the general public is aware of .mobi and can actually make use of it, it will never catch on in total.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077
..

Yes , you are right. We need more people to develope sites and not to sit on the domains.

Originally Posted by dgridley

Not to mention, there may be millions upon millions who own cell phones, but the percentage who use mobile internet, or even know how to use it, or have access to it, are very small. Anyone have actual figures?

That's just my opinion..

This was true in 1995 as well with Internet. Very few percentage of people had internet access back then or know how to use it. But see how it changed in few years. Same will happen with mobile internet.

Vcool

10-31-2006, 10:59 PM	THREAD STARTER #1 (permalink)
Spade NameBio.com Founder Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Carlsbad, CA Posts: 7,855	Has Anyone Actually visited a .mobi site? Ok... with recent sales its obvious that people are excited about the .mobi TLD - however my question is has anyone been to a .mobi site? or used one from there cell phones? Maybe its just me, but I never quite got this TLD - I understand the concept, but maybe I just think its overated? Is .mobi truely useful? You Tell me! __________________ Read my Blog! NameBio.com - Search The Domain Sales Index Buying LLLL.com's ending in "CA"

10-31-2006, 11:10 PM	#2 (permalink)
RegFee DNOA Certified Seller Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Arizona Posts: 3,680	This thread will probably get moved to the .mobi forum. I'm assuming .mobi will be the standard extension built into future phones. That way, you just have to type "flowers" and "flowers.mobi" will pop up, and you know it will be a site made for mobile surfing (mostly text, small size). ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/253077-has-anyone-actually-visited-mobi-site.html It's not that useful to me, because I have Opera Mini on my phone, and it renders any site into a smaller format, but for the phones that don't have that much memory or can't Opera Mini, it is a good deal. A lot of people still have pay-per-kb internet access too, so if they want to check, say, the weather, do you think they'd rather to go to weatherchannel.com and instantly get bombarded with a 50kb page, or weather.mobi and get a 500byte page? __________________ Nombrex.com

10-31-2006, 11:23 PM	THREAD STARTER #3 (permalink)
Spade NameBio.com Founder Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Carlsbad, CA Posts: 7,855	Now I can understand that and it makes sense. But how much longer will people be paying for bandwith usage on cell phones? It seems to me many of the services are offering unlimited broadband... with these internet phones turning into PC's - you can run the fully functional sites on your phone, right? So why the .mobi TLD? __________________ Read my Blog! NameBio.com - Search The Domain Sales Index Buying LLLL.com's ending in "CA"

11-01-2006, 01:42 AM	#9 (permalink)
iNod Eating Pie Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 2,272	I have, my theatre got its company name.mobi and it is better than typing mobile.theatre.com - Steve __________________ I feel old.

11-01-2006, 02:33 AM	#10 (permalink)
c4smok NamePros Regular Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: namewanted.com Posts: 748 Follow @GameOpen	I really think .mobi is 6 years too late... and already out of date =/ __________________ Tetio.com \| NameWanted.com \|op2.net

11-01-2006, 03:16 AM	#11 (permalink)
panman NamePros Regular Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Port Melbourne Posts: 349	A lot of work needs to be done to get .mobi off the ground. The top generic words held in the pool, auctioned off and developed over time should assist in it's popularity.(more content helpful than .com -we hope) When this happens people will be more inclined to surf on-the-go, but not before telco prices tumble (which I think will happen in a few yrs). Have I browsed .mobi sites, answer is very little. Google has been no help to me, which has been a little dissapointing. Then again these domains have only just started. Mmmm patience i think we need For the time being!!! Overall I do believe that many people will eventually surf the net for info on their Cell phones...

11-01-2006, 08:51 AM	THREAD STARTER #12 (permalink)
Spade NameBio.com Founder Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Carlsbad, CA Posts: 7,855	Panman - Im not disagreeing with you that people will begin to search the web using there cell's. Im simply asking will they be searching using .mobi? I guess the point or question in this thread is - "Will .mobi be a success?" I agree with c4smok - I think its too late. A few years ago absolutely. But with broadband becomming affordable on treo phones (plenty others too) I dont see any reason to visit a .mobi extension. __________________ Read my Blog! NameBio.com - Search The Domain Sales Index Buying LLLL.com's ending in "CA"

11-01-2006, 09:43 AM	#13 (permalink)
compubahn NamePros Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 113	It really depends on the device. I tried surfing on my Moto e815 & it was a disaster. If I felt that was the target audience, I would not have regged even one .mobi. After I recently upgraded to a pda phone, I bought more .mobis. There is something to this. Only a small percentage of "standard" websites even approach usability with a phone or pda. Sites designed to detect mobiles & redirect or those built for .mobi are quite usable though. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077 That said, I don't think mobile use will be limited to "ringtone" type names nor will it follow desktop habits 100% due to limitations in screen size. I do think .mobi will be a success. To what degree, I am not sure... Definitely worth a gamble IMO provided it is not the mortgage money. If the extension becomes the standard for mobiles (keyword + go = keyword.mobi) there won't be much debate anymore.

11-01-2006, 01:20 PM	#16 (permalink)
MCDomains DomainSeeking.com Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Boston Posts: 2,447 Follow @AdvoCareMatt	I own plenty of .mobi's but I don't use internet on my phone... BUT .. I will starting next week since I'll have a Crackberry! I'll be all over the .mobi's! __________________ Erin Burnett CNN \| Free Images Royalty Free Be Your OWN Boss - AdvoCare Angie Harmon Pics

11-01-2006, 03:25 PM	#17 (permalink)
c4smok NamePros Regular Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: namewanted.com Posts: 748 Follow @GameOpen	I do not want to burst anybodies bubble on this whole craze.. But as a web developer and programer, I see no point to. mobi. If you want me to go more in-depth just ask =P __________________ Tetio.com \| NameWanted.com \|op2.net

11-01-2006, 04:39 PM	#18 (permalink)
domainacrobat Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: A-Team Fool! Posts: 3,708	IMO .mobi has something going for it. I have t-mobile. They include the ability to go on the net free to their mobile site only. If I want a junk ringtone it costs $2.99 and horrible wallpaper is $.99. It is only $5.99 a month to surf .mobis, and if I could have access to all the latest, cheapest ringtones, wallpaper, and animations I might actually customize my phone. T-mobile is on the process of launching WIFI phone service, this will exponentially increase the amount of phones with internet access since they will want to make Voip calls. I am certain internet and voip will start to work their way into standard plans just the way text messages are virtually free. I cannot surf the web from my phone, but I can surf .mobis with ease. I think at first the ringtone, and download sites will be the most successful. Then as more useful .mobis are indexed and there is a major database it will become more and more useable. I can understand that some people dont see the relevance, why not make site like MyMobileDL.com a normal .com into a small site formated for a mobile device. Because it wil be way to hard to surf the web trying to locate these specific formatted sites within the billions of websites that currently exist. It will cut down on spam names, and create certainty for users. Thats all customers want, certainty, they want to be able to find what they want when they want 100 percent of the time. .Mobi is very useful IMO. __________________ SMILE!

11-01-2006, 10:49 PM	#19 (permalink)
c4smok NamePros Regular Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: namewanted.com Posts: 748 Follow @GameOpen	A website can have the ability to adapt to what device its being viewed on.. If the website has customers from a mobile device it can change and conform to the ability to be seen in a mobile friendly format.. That is my whole case with mobi... also I can see problems with people regging .mobi's of people who already run the .com.. I can see a bunch of trademark issues going for the same customers and all.. It is a waste of a domain extension, and possibly a domain extension controlled by major mobile phone companies could be a threat to an independent net itself. __________________ Tetio.com \| NameWanted.com \|op2.net

11-02-2006, 08:27 AM	#22 (permalink)
danmanmktng NamePros Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 160	The other thing to consider is that even though websites can detect you're on a mobile and send you to a page accordingly -- you may WANT to go to the .com version of a site on your phone. Almost surely sites will want to have content on the .com that's not available on the .mobi and vice-versa.

11-02-2006, 09:59 AM	#24 (permalink)
dgridley NamePros Legend Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW Missouri Posts: 18,342 Follow @davew3b	I don't think most businesses/websites bother with a mobile friendly format simply because the demand is not there for 90% of the sites. How many times would you use your mobile to access info about tropical fish, lawn seed, fresh fruit, or genealogy? I don't see this changing anytime (read: years) soon, if ever. Take a look at some of the SIGs here on NamePros that have .mobi's.. 99% are total dreck IMO. When might "I" be tempted to use a .mobi site? There have been times I might have liked to check my bank balance or check an auction on eBay.. I can see that being useful. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=253077 But the key to the success of .mobi is not buying the domain and sitting on it.. it's development. Until the general public is aware of .mobi and can actually make use of it, it will never catch on in total. Not to mention, there may be millions upon millions who own cell phones, but the percentage who use mobile internet, or even know how to use it, or have access to it, are very small. Anyone have actual figures? That's just my opinion.. __________________ davew3b tumblr blog \| davew3b posterous blog

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