.mobi Misleading statements from mTLD director of PR and Communications

[labrocca]

Found this today.

http://www.smstextnews.com/2006/10/mobi_sucks_eggs.html

Vance Hedderel, Director, PR and Communications, dotMobi Says:
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:34 pm

I’m always surprised by the vehemence people express in regards to the perceived effort in typing “.mobi”; I suspect you will start to see mobiles with “.mobi” programmed in the interface, so the typing issue — if it is an issue — becomes moot.

However, in the comments above, I’m more surprised by Shawn McCollum’s comment that he’s “worried that mobi will become a large walled garden.”

We’ve talked about this on in our blog’s “Misconceptions” series (see http://dotmobi.typepad.com/dotmobi/misconceptions/index.html). The short answer: (1) the freeform address entry required to enter a .mobi URL is the antithesis of a walled garden, (2) the business model of a walled garden of content and services has not worked (think AOL) and (3) of the 13 investors in mTLD, only three are mobile operators — the rest are device manufacturers, service operators and software companies, none of whom stand to gain from a walled garden.

imho that statement is highly misleading. He obviously makes point of the backers and says it's a moot issue with the long extension because .mobi might be programmed into the interface. IMHO that's irresponsible for him to make that statement unless it was a real possiblity it would happen. So far it's not and they have skirted the issue since then.

These are words coming from the director of PR and Communications! mobi domainers should be outraged. And you wonder why there was all this speculation about a mobi default button? Now you know where it started...from the horses mouth.

 

[mykel241]

No comment on the article but I do highly respect Vance as he opened the door to some opportunities for me that would not of came about without him. He along with the .mobi advisory group will be at the http://www.mobilemarketingforum.com/ convention on June 6, and 7 in New York City. If anyone has messages for them or Vance himself please let me know as I can deliver them personally.

Michael

 

[nombre]

we don't know for certain whether it will happen, i dertainly didn't need this guy to tell me it would happen, it only makes sense that they would make the default

i suspect that if it does (and i personally believe it will become a default for many) it will be supported by a mixture of browsers, cellphone makers etc but maybe not by all

dot com is the defacto default for many browsers

it would make sense to make mobi the default for mobile phones

certainly if we do see it on browsers from nokia and microsoft and ericcson for example it would push it toward the default

the fact the he "suspects" it is good news, he probably knows what is going on behind the scenes

 

[fautebol]

So far it's not

How do you know? Could you give me some real facts? Or is it YOUR speculation? I am not saying this will happen. And ,I would indeed be really dissappointed if Vince Hedderel knew the probability that this will happen would be very low.

However, it has been said before that there were discussions about it between the parties involved. Do you know if this is not true or anything about these discussions?

Could you give some real facts? Or do I have simply to believe your speculation (which indeed does make sense to me) without any backing proof or facts?

 

[mjnels]

it of course, is his speculation.


people and their reasoning... for everything its "well it hasnt happend yet" and "well they better get on the ball"



ok mom, are we there yet? are we there yet?

are we?


were never gonna get there?


mom are we there yet?

 

[movingconcierge]

^^food^^

 

[labrocca]

How do you know? Could you give me some real facts? Or is it YOUR speculation? I am not saying this will happen. And ,I would indeed be really dissappointed if Vince Hedderel knew the probability that this will happen would be very low.

However, it has been said before that there were discussions about it between the parties involved. Do you know if this is not true or anything about these discussions?

Could you give some real facts? Or do I have simply to believe your speculation (which indeed does make sense to me) without any backing proof or facts?

I can only provide the fact that mTLD speculated themselves about default mobi button but they have yet to release ANY FACTS about it being a real possibility. Sorry but it's NOT gonna happen and it would have by now been announced if it was going to. Positive news even in rumor form is good. The rumors have died and we now know the source of these rumors....mTLD themselves. I wasn't looking to find that type of post but when I read it..it was rather shocking to see it. Are you not shocked?

btw...for those intent on drawing me into a personal flame war...not gonna happen. Just an fyi in case you are unaware of why I don't reply to you.

"movingconcierge - This user is on your Ignore List."

"mjnels This user is on your Ignore List."

 

[-REECE-]

Meh, I don't really care about mtld. Never liked them from day 1 and I've made that pretty well known here over the last couple months.

Default or not, I'm going to develop 1 .mobi over the next couple years, hopefully have 500+ pages of content, do some marketing, and have a decent site. I couldn't care less what mtld does anymore. I've tried to distance my site as much as possible (by making it PC friendly) from your average .mobi site.

I'm going to finish developing my site either way. I'm going to be acquiring another related .mobi soon which I plan on turning into a health forum. The goal being that I don't need .mobi to succeed any more than imageshack needs .us to succeed.

If .mobi doesn't live up to my hopes, I'll just drop a few hundred regs -- no biggie.

 

[binaryman]

"If .mobi doesn't live up to my hopes, I'll just drop a few hundred regs -- no biggie."

Excactly..me too. Though in my case it's 60 regs

 

[Mark]

Did people think we were pulling the "Default" idea out of our butts ?

If it happens , There will be nothing but headaches for anyone behind it IMO - Lawsuits over Several people already Branded on different extensions BUT only one of them was quick enough to get the .mobi version ...... It will not work "Behind the garden wall"

 

[scandiman]

^^food^^

:lol:

 

[movingconcierge]

^^snack^^

 

[hawkeye]

Did people think we were pulling the "Default" idea out of our butts ?

If it happens , There will be nothing but headaches for anyone behind it IMO - Lawsuits over Several people already Branded on different extensions BUT only one of them was quick enough to get the .mobi version ...... It will not work "Behind the garden wall"

So it would be wrong to default to .mobi, but not to .com?? On my Blackjack, when I type in an address, it currently notes (or defaults to) '.com' behind every typed in letter until a '.' is put in. So, as this is the same scenerio, only with .com instead of .mobi, I guess if they haven't already started, we should be filing lawsuits against Samsung because we/others weren't 'quick enough to get the .com version'??

 

[Mark]

So it would be wrong to default to .mobi, but not to .com?? On my Blackjack, when I type in an address, it currently notes (or defaults to) '.com' behind every typed in letter until a '.' is put in. So, as this is the same scenerio, only with .com instead of .mobi, I guess if they haven't already started, we should be filing lawsuits against Samsung because we/others weren't 'quick enough to get the .com version'??

I have no idea how your "BlackJack" is set up - Can't tell you why its doing that ... But If I type words in my "Browser" Not all of them go to .com's - Google tries to find the most relevant site (In their Guess-timation) I suppose.

Are you sure it's ONLY .com's you go to ?


Results 1 - 100 of about 6,000,000,000 for site:.com/. (0.13 seconds)

Results 1 - 100 of about 1,700,000 for site:.mobi/. (0.15 seconds)


Could the Ratio of Dev'd/listed sites be a factor ^ ?



I'll bet there are tons more Mobile ready .com's compared to mobile ready .mobi's - Thats something to consider as why you're going to .com

 

[mjnels]

So it would be wrong to default to .mobi, but not to .com?? On my Blackjack, when I type in an address, it currently notes (or defaults to) '.com' behind every typed in letter until a '.' is put in. So, as this is the same scenerio, only with .com instead of .mobi, I guess if they haven't already started, we should be filing lawsuits against Samsung because we/others weren't 'quick enough to get the .com version'??

i was curious as to the reasoning behind this kind of logic as well..

and anyway, since when are lawsuits anything new.. people will continue to think theyre entitled to something theyre not for all sorts of things, .mobi included.

 

[fautebol]

Are you not shocked?

No, I'm not. I leave open the possibililty that they are really working on this and that it was a bona fide statement from them. No facts tell me the contrary. Now, it's not something that I would trust enough to guide any investment from my part and you might be right at the end. They are sales men. Thus, I will take everything they say with a grain of salt. Words were indeed carefully chosen here...But, for the moment, nothing tells me they are misleading people...

 

[hawkeye]

When I type anything in my address bar, below it, in a 'history' type of setting, it notes the letters as they are typed in with '.com' after each one as if that was the logical extension I was going for. Once I type the '.', the '.com' disappears. So basically it's assuming I was typing in, or going to, a .com address. So, if phones are set up this way for 'assuming .com', why couldn't they be set up for 'assuming .mobi'??

 

[mjnels]

So, if phones are set up this way for 'assuming .com', why couldn't they be set up for 'assuming .mobi'??

because change is impossible.. duh

 

[nombre]

Did people think we were pulling the "Default" idea out of our butts ?

If it happens , There will be nothing but headaches for anyone behind it IMO - Lawsuits over Several people already Branded on different extensions BUT only one of them was quick enough to get the .mobi version ...... It will not work "Behind the garden wall"

a mobi default is not only logical, it's part of the reason mobi is worth the investment, if browser defaults become widely supported it will make mobi the defacto standard for the mobile net

the net already is a "walled garden" because as many people have pointed out dot com is the default for many browsers

as far as the lawsuit goes, they had their chance, if they didn't get a mobi they'll have to make up a new one or buy it on the aftermarket

 

[-REECE-]

a mobi default is not only logical, it's part of the reason mobi is worth the investment, if browser defaults become widely supported it will make mobi the defacto standard for the mobile net

the net already is a "walled garden" because as many people have pointed out dot com is the default for many browsers

as far as the lawsuit goes, they had their chance, if they didn't get a mobi they'll have to make up a new one or buy it on the aftermarket

The default possibility is one of the main reasons I invested in .mobi. If they default it, pretty much everyone with half decent .mobis is in for a good time. As some of the others have said -- I really don't see what would be wrong about defaulting it, and yes, .com did once default to every single word typed in (on Internet Explorer, at least). I remember having fun at my local library typing in random names in the 95-96 timeframe, amazed at how many fools (we would call them geniuses today) registered stupid names (smart by today's standards) like cow.com.

As some of the others have said, Delta Airlines, in example, may just have to be creative and use something like DeltAir, rather than Delta. It might be a problem for certain companies (i.e. IBM), but as far as I've seen, most companies like IBM that really couldn't go by any other name did a good job securing their .mobis.