.mobi Caroline Greer (Mtld) Responds

[binaryman]

http://dotmobi.typepad.com/dotmobi/2007/08/weather-is-1-in.html#comment-79571549

 

[garrett200]

Very informative. I'm glad they are aware of how most of us feel about the reserved names.

 

[Jeff]

:hi:

Congratulations on the FIRST -and- ONLY .MOBI RFP ... of Weather.mobi (though I can't quite figure out why the "Mobile" link at Weather.com still states, "Go to weather.com on your phone. It's fast! It's free!" :blink:

As Vance stated, the applications we received for ringtones, news and sports.mobi fell somewhat short of the high standard set by the Weather Channel and so we have decided to put those domains back into the pot and offer them to the market once again at a later date, either via RFP or auction. No decisions have been made yet as to when and how.

What does she mean, exactly, by "or auction"? :yell:

Thanks for the assist, just getting back from a nice summer vacation! :music:
-Jeff

 

[garrett200]

WB Jeff, we missed you terribly.

.mobi took off while you were gone!!!

 

[mjnels]

Congratulations on the FIRST -and- ONLY .MOBI RFP ... of Weather.mobi (though I can't quite figure out why the "Mobile" link at Weather.com still states, "Go to weather.com on your phone. It's fast! It's free!" :blink:

gee jeff, i dont know... i would venture to say that its because .mobi is a complete and utter failure...... orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr maybe its only been a few weeks since theyve owned it and theyre not crazy crackhead .mobi domainers like some of us... i dunno....

...ah well, time for my dr. peppers and popcorn.

 

[Jeff]

It's cool ...

.mobi took off while you were gone!!!

Yeah, I see the progress ... :blink: :bah:

WB Jeff, we missed you terribly.

Me too, thanks!

...ah well, time for my dr. peppers and popcorn.

Well done, thanks for keeping things cool, friendly, and professional.
See you soon.
-Jeff

 

[cambkey]

How to contradict yourself in one blog posting:

Ringtones, sports, and news will not be awarded right now....the reason that any applications were rejected was simply because the applications did not meet the process objectives as set out in the application form - innovative content, new features and services etc. dotMobi was also looking for a robust business plan, a commitment to marketing.

translation: Our family silver is precious - we will only sell it to applicants deemed worthy

in relation to auctions - please do not dismiss this allocation process entirely. It is important to understand that dotMobi is a private company that requires funding to roll out the many programmes and initiatives that we have on the go.

translation: In order to feed the kids, we will sell the family silver to anyone with a deep enough pocket

 

[garrett200]

Seems like there had to be more than one application for "news.mobi". Did they reject all of them? "Will not be awarded right now" just doesn't make any sense to me. Names like this need to get developed, and ASAP.

They don't have time to wait for an offer from Rupert Murdoch.

There are members of this forum that could do a good job developing news.mobi. This is a total cop out on their part and rediculous that they can't find anyone good enough to develop it. I can name 5 guys right now that would handle the job magnificently!

mtld, let me have it and I ASSURE you it will get developed correctly, and FAST too!!

In fact, give the best 100 RFP's to the top 10 guys in this forum, and I assure the same thing for those names.

They better find someone good enough to develop these soon, or their extension is no longer going to be good enough for people to shell out money to register or renew their .mobi names.

One more thing. If you're not going to let anyone develop these names, at least redirect them for the time being to something more useful than a non-resolving url!!!!! http://news.mobi http://sports.mobi http://sex.mobi http://ringtones.mobi

 

[scandiman]

They better find someone good enough to develop these soon, or their extension is no longer going to be good enough for people to shell out money to register or renew their .mobi names.

Garrett, I think you are being WAY to dramatic here. 3 domains not built yet is not going to destroy the reputation of the extension. On the other hand, 3 domains poorly built and heavily publicized could in fact have a detrimental effect. It's called bad publicity and we don't need that right now. When news, sports and ringtones goes live, I want my socks knocked off, not some mediocre site. Sounds to me like mTLD has similar objectives and I'm glad. What will sadden me is if any of these 3 names are thrown to the domainers in a public auction with no development requirements. Besides the lost opportunity to build on great domains, it would make me question my participation in future RFP's.

 

[garrett200]

I see your point Scandiman. But when, praytell, do you think the tipping point is going to come when these names are still not developed and will start hurting the extension? I think that time is coming.

Talk about bad publicity, true they have that already from doing nothing with these names.

And by the way, it's not just these 3 names. There are many, MANY more that remain undeveloped and languishing nowhere. This is unacceptable after a year.

I want my socks knocked off with something more than a non-resolving page at this point. The least they could do with these names is redirect them to a simple page that explains what .mobi is all about. How hard would that be?

 

[scandiman]

I see your point Scandiman. But when, praytell, do you think the tipping point is going to come when these names are still not developed and will start hurting the extension? I think that time is coming.

Talk about bad publicity, true they have that already from doing nothing with these names.

And by the way, it's not just these 3 names. There are many, MANY more that remain undeveloped and languishing nowhere. This is unacceptable after a year.

I want my socks knocked off with something more than a non-resolving page at this point. The least they could do with these names is redirect them to a simple page that explains what .mobi is all about. How hard would that be?

Bad publicity with who? Domainers and thats it. There aren't mobs of average people lined up in protest with their cell phones in hand demanding the release of sports.mobi. Hopefully everyone here can agree that from the publics perspective, .mobi is relatively unknown today as compared to .com. That is changing slowly but still has a far ways to go. There is no tipping point when something relatively unknown becomes unknown because it already is.

The only tipping point to really look for is what accumulated efforts and awareness will take .mobi from relative obscurity to being something the public is familiar with. Businesses are working feverishly in all industries around the globe trying to figure that formula out in their respective fields. All we can do is speculate. For me, I see quality content as a must and of primary importance. It is what I am working on most of the time when I'm not visiting a forum. Sites like BofA.mobi, Amtrak.mobi, NBA.mobi, WNBA.mobi, Weather.mobi, BMW.mobi, SAS.mobi and others get me excited. All are helping to tip that scale in our favor. Add in the efforts of solo developers with sites like dir.mobi, pilot.mobi, mobicity.mobi, boroughs.mobi, bars.mobi, invest.mobi and countless others that have graced these pages. Each site adds more weight to help achieve that tipping point moving .mobi out of the shadows and into the public eye. mTLD making parking pages for the Premium and Reserved names adds little to nothing right now. But their efforts with Dev.mobi, Ready.mobi, Site.mobi, the Device Database initiative, alliances with the MMA and W3C and the ongoing efforts being championed within the dotMobi Advisory Group are substantive efforts being put forth by mTLD to focus on content, quality content for the emerging mobile web space. They are taking their proper role IMO, not to build sites themselves but to enable others to build.

Let's be honest, domainers want this all right now so we can profit from our domain speculations. So we get excited with the release of weather.mobi but perceive it is not enough to tip the scale in our favor, so we cry for more. More action on the RFP's, more attention to resolving Premium and Reserved names to a parking page of some kind, more information about the backers intentions, more, more, more... reg fees are coming up soon, so dammit mTLD, get off your butts and do more! This anxiety leads to rash judgments that completely miss the bigger picture.

 

[garrett200]

Bad publicity with who? Domainers and thats it.

Nope. Bad publicity for the thousands of daily visitors to those 6,000 names who see absolutely nothing when they get there.

I freely acknowledge all of the good goings on with .mobi, and there are many. But this issue is important, and in my view yes, more should be done.

I understand that they would want the best possible endusers, but at the current pace, all of the reserved names will be awarded by the year 8006. Too long, IMO.

 

[scandiman]

Nope. Bad publicity for the thousands of daily visitors to those 6,000 names who see absolutely nothing when they get there.

But who are these visitors...right now they are domainers!

 

[garrett200]

But who are these visitors...right now they are domainers!

Oh really? And you know this how?

I beg to differ. Since the iPhone started, I've been receiving traffic AND CLICKS on many of my domains. Domainers don't tend to click on ads.

 

[mjnels]

there are no real visitors to those 6,000 'premium' domains.

why in the hell would people (besides domainers) type in random keywords with .mobi after it at this point in time?

they wouldnt, because they havnt heard of it and the only reason some mobi sites get real visitors now is because they have real content on them and can be found via the search engines or other links..

these 6,000 names have no content so they are not in the search engine... i guess one good part of this is when someone IS awarded a name the history isnt all scummed up and they get a clean slate..

 

[binaryman]

Great post Scandiman. Reasuring as well. I have been feeling the same way as Garrett about all this but your perspective certainly puts me on a horisontal level again. But I still would like to see some more progress then what has been attained so far. It just seems to be so much less then what I had expected it to be at this stage of the game.

 

[garrett200]

Whether it's domainers or real people, doesn't matter. The point is that the names still need to get into the hands of developers. This is my only real beef with mtld.

why in the hell would people (besides domainers) type in random keywords with .mobi after it at this point in time?

they wouldnt, because they havnt heard of it

You're right! Hardly anyone knows about .mobi BECAUSE THE BEST NAMES AREN'T DEVELOPED!! Catch 22.

 

[mjnels]

You're right! Hardly anyone knows about .mobi BECAUSE THE BEST NAMES AREN'T DEVELOPED!! Catch 22.

yes, and think about that for a minute... if regular people dont know they exist right now then they wont know if say, 5 years passes. when its new its new... regardless of whether its tommorow or 5 years from now..


the world existed thousands of years before i was born, but when i was finally bought here it was all new to me...


mobile internet, you could say, has existed for a while now... but just like when the regular internet started there is plenty of work to be done.... dont expect anything but a good dent to be made within the next few years.. there will be some huge ups and downs in the domainer world... relax, this is only in the domain speculation world... mTLD is a funded company moving forward and until they are out of business there is no game over.


there will be PLENTY of mobi speculators that give up.... this is how it works with speculation... first a big landrush happens and later down the road some that cant stomach the renewals or waiting "however long it takes" will fall off the map and their work will be swooped up by other people... its all part of the speculation game.

 

[-REECE-]

Whether it's domainers or real people, doesn't matter. The point is that the names still need to get into the hands of developers. This is my only real beef with mtld.


You're right! Hardly anyone knows about .mobi BECAUSE THE BEST NAMES AREN'T DEVELOPED!! Catch 22.

Kind of like my post awhile back... Nobody wants to develop a .mobi (or in this case, mtld doesn't want to sell/rfp their .mobis) because they won't make enough money. The Catch 22 being that we need developed sites and these landmark names developed if we want to see the extension get more popular.

And to think that mtld's .mobis get no real enduser traffic is a major fallacy IMO. Let me explain why... Suppose you come over to my antioxidant site and head over to the antioxidant section. You're so impressed with what you read there about melatonin (reserved name) that you decide to go to melatonin.mobi and attempt to find out more information. You end up with something worse than imaginable... A blank page.

Mtld claims they need money... Why the heck don't they park these names at least? I do like the extension, as many of you can tell from my generally positive posts about it, but the incompetence mtld shows (and has for a long, long time now) is simply inacceptable.

For one thing, I'd like to be told the truth. Mtld has raked in millions of dollars from domainers and companies alike. Where did all that money go if they claim they need more? Are there really no good endusers for news.mobi or just nobody willing to pay your .tv-like pricing scheme concocted to milk as much out of large companies as possible (I highly doubt the only fee is the application fee + marketing requirements)?

Who on earth would spend thousands -- maybe even millions promoting a name that they are effectively leasing (see RFP contract) from mtld and that can be taken away at any time for any reason (or no reason at all)?


edit: And I think everyone who submitted an RFP application on these names deserves their application fee back.

 

[garrett200]

I never said anything about game over. On the contrary, I believe .mobi is actually gaining steam. Judging from my increased traffic I would definitely say so.

But, the sooner the better to get the top 1000 keyword domains out there to developers, and into the SE's. Seeing them languishing doing nothing just makes me cringe.