.mobi .mobi beating the poor alternatives

[noonoo1]

dotMobi Domains and Mobile Web Explodes

A new study on mobile web trends that shows mobile web content creation continues to explode.


Based on a review of the largest top-level Internet domains, dotMobi has seen a sevenfold growth in the number of mobile websites in the past year, proving that a revolution in mobile content availability is at hand.

When dotMobi first performed this study a year ago, 150,000 mobile websites were available. These sites are discovered by mobile-friendly Internet address designations like ".mobi" or "mobile." or "/wap," where mobile-friendly content is likely to reside.

dotMobi now counts approximately 1.1 million mobile site addresses in the world, based on a scan of the largest Top Level Domains (TLDs) in use. The TLDs that were scanned include such domains as .mobi, .com, .net, .uk and .de. The 1.1 million number means that approximately 0.8 percent of all domains are likely to have mobile-friendly content.

As a comparison, the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in 1998 counted a total of 1.46 million public, PC-based Web sites across all TLDs. Today, VeriSign estimates there are approximately 77.4 million live ".com" and ".net" Web sites. Given the strong growth of the mobile Web in the past year and the rapidly evolving sophistication of mobile technologies, a similar -- or even faster -- long-term deployment of mobile content is likely compared to that of the PC-based Web a decade ago.

Of the 1.1 million global "entry points" used by content creators, the .mobi domain is the preferred entry point for sites that use a single naming convention --- that's to say, sites that use only one domain. (Some sites use multiple naming options for the same site.) The ".mobi" domain is used on 23 percent of these addresses.


"Site owners and consumers need a single naming convention to resolve the market confusion in finding mobile content that works on all phones, not just high-end smartphones or iPhones," said Amy Mischler, dotMobi's Vice President of Mobile Marketing Evangelism. "The .mobi domain is the only ICANN-approved domain name for identifying mobile content, and the marketplace is responding by choosing .mobi as the preferred way for identifying mobile content."

Other mobile content identifiers

The "/wap" identifier, which is used primarily by "legacy" sites from the initial WAP era earlier this decade, represents 22 percent of all mobile-friendly Internet addresses. Given that WAP is entering its sunset phase as a technology, this 22% figure is likely to shrink in the coming year.

Other mobile content identifiers include: "/m" (13 percent), "/wap." (10 percent), "mobile." (5 percent), "m." (5 percent) and "/pda" (3 percent). Less frequently used are "pda.", "/forum", "/mobile" and "/wireless".

Also popular is the use of device detection to automatically present mobile content, as dotMobi's award-winning DeviceAtlas product allows site owners to do. Device-aware sites currently represent 14 percent of all mobile-friendly sites.

"While the growth of mobile Web content on a global basis is not a surprise, the speed at which it's growing is very happy news," said Trey Harvin, CEO, dotMobi. "And the growing use of the only ICANN-approved convention to identify that content -- the .mobi domain -- proves that content owners are anxious to make sure their customers know that their mobile sites will work on any phone, on any network, anywhere in the world."

:sold:

 

[-REECE-]

Thanks for the info. I have long believed the mobile web will in time be huge, just a matter of what role .mobi will play versus .com domains with a prefix or suffix identifying the site as being mobile compatible. That really is the only unknown at this point in my opinion. The mobile web is coming regardless of which one (if any) end up becoming the mobile standard.

I haven't kept up with mobi-news as much as I would have liked to lately -- has Mtld yet started enforcing the development requirements on the auctioned .mobi domains which came with a contract? What about every other .mobi domain which is supposed to be mobile compatible or have a mobile-compatible parking page?

If .mobi wants to differentiate itself from the rest, it will need to follow through on what was originally proposed.

 

[PMDN]

I see an indication of this growth, and of .mobi in particular, in my parking. My .mobi domains are, and have been parked for some time. In the past, they were getting very few, if any views/revenue. In recent months, that has changed. Still not great in terms of views/revenue, but it is definitely increasing.


Chuck

 

[Kate]

Well the TLD has shrunk for sure. If I remember well there used to be 1+ million registrations at some point.
Today: 836760 names in the zone. It has been stagnating at these levels recently. Check http://www.hosterstats.com/ for historical stats.

More pages indexed in google != more websites/domains. The .me registry is also picking stats that are more favorable to them, but if we had access to registration stats it could be that the picture would be less rosy.

In my view, the ext. has lost traction and the investors have left the building.

 

[noonoo1]

The stats still show that the unapproved( not ICANN) alternatives are miniscule compared to the growth of .mobi
This argument is pretty convincing.

Let's give it another year.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

Some people just live for doom and gloom.

A quote from my past (from a tech guy):

"This will be the last computer you'll ever need; I can't imagine you'll EVER need more than a 20 Gigabyte hard drive" (1987).​

Another quote (from a business person)

"Dot WHAT? Business will never use the internet for business. It's just for geeks. People will NEVER buy online" (Circa 1995).​

Ignore naysayers; they are almost always wrong.


*

 

[daj]

LOL..I wonder who wrote this article? Most likely a ceo of dot mobi.
They want to keep people optimistic...like an Obama speech.
When in fact .mobi is going nowhere, and neither is the economy.
Keep hoping, as hoping will you get you nowhere. =)

As been said on this forum over and over again for years now.
Dot Com is the only extension that grows enormously, and is worth holding on to. All the other extensions are only good for development purposes or country specific websites. All the .mobi sites I've seen have been parked pages, or link farms. Hardly developed to their potential.

 

[plaggypig]

"Site owners and consumers need a single naming convention to resolve the market confusion in finding mobile content that works on all phones, not just high-end smartphones or iPhones," said Amy Mischler, dotMobi's Vice President of Mobile Marketing Evangelism.

1) We don't need a naming convention for this, 2) namespaces for different devices would lead to a state of affairs in which we have two distinct webs, leaving us to each reconcile the .mobi namespace with others, creating a problem far bigger than one it was attempting to solve in the first place. I don't understand how anybody could actually want this to happen?

Will the .mobi community at large ever acknowledge these points as a major contributing factor to the failure of the extension? It seems a lot of blame gets directed towards the registry, ignoring the more fundamental issues.

 

[namewaiter]

Well the TLD has shrunk for sure. If I remember well there used to be 1+ million registrations at some point.
Today: 836760 names in the zone. It has been stagnating at these levels recently. Check http://www.hosterstats.com/ for historical stats.

actually, i think when they announced (and people discussed) more than 1 million regs, they weren't talking live current regs, they were refering to 1 million registrations since inception (that total number is now probably up around 1.2 million).

 

[-REECE-]

The naysayers on this forum have been right more often than wrong from what I've observed. Nobody is right all the time -- the best we can do is to try and do better than 50% which would be pure chance.

*

Some people just live for doom and gloom.

A quote from my past (from a tech guy):

"This will be the last computer you'll ever need; I can't imagine you'll EVER need more than a 20 Gigabyte hard drive" (1987).​

Another quote (from a business person)

"Dot WHAT? Business will never use the internet for business. It's just for geeks. People will NEVER buy online" (Circa 1995).​

Ignore naysayers; they are almost always wrong.


*

1) We don't need a naming convention for this, 2) namespaces for different devices would lead to a state of affairs in which we have two distinct webs, leaving us to each reconcile the .mobi namespace with others, creating a problem far bigger than one it was attempting to solve in the first place. I don't understand how anybody could actually want this to happen?

Will the .mobi community at large ever acknowledge these points as a major contributing factor to the failure of the extension? It seems a lot of blame gets directed towards the registry, ignoring the more fundamental issues.

The 2 webs argument has been brought up many times (including by many of the people involved in the creation of the Internet) and is the same argument many hold regarding all those new TLDs ICANN is supposedly going to come out with. I don't really see how it creates 2 webs myself any more than extensions other than .com create "2 webs".

That said, I haven't been very happy for a long time with regards to how things have been going over at Mtld headquarters -- a lot of talk, not much being delivered. We certainly don't need a different namespace for the mobile web, however that doesn't mean it couldn't achieve some degree of success as an alternative extension to dotcom (just like .net, .org, .info, .cc, .ws, etc).

I don't think we've ever established a definition for success or failure of an extension here on Namepros (someone want to enlighten me?), so I'm not really sure where .mobi stands there...

If Mtld wants to achieve anything more than alternative extension status, they really need to get with the program (and it may very well be too late for that). The RFPs (and generic .mobis being held hostage) need to be released and mobile compatibility needs to be enforced. It's hard to have confidence in anyone who doesn't deliver on what they promise.

 

[mo_dork]

That said, I haven't been very happy for a long time with regards to how things have been going over at Mtld headquarters -- a lot of talk, not much being delivered. We certainly don't need a different namespace for the mobile web, however that doesn't mean it couldn't achieve some degree of success as an alternative extension to dotcom (just like .net, .org, .info, .cc, .ws, etc).

If Mtld wants to achieve anything more than alternative extension status, they really need to get with the program (and it may very well be too late for that). The RFPs (and generic .mobis being held hostage) need to be released and mobile compatibility needs to be enforced. It's hard to have confidence in anyone who doesn't deliver on what they promise.

Yeah but they have been pushing hard in many areas of the mobile industry, working to develop various standards, developing apps to help non-mobile sites mobilize, etc.

We certainly don't need a different namespace for the mobile web

We don't need it, but its quite useful. A new pertinent address allows a whole host of new businesses to develop and compete with the incumbants, this is great for innovation and choice.

It's hard to have confidence in anyone who doesn't deliver on what they promise.

They are delivering in a more hollistic way across the mobile industry. Mtld need to be given more credit for simply doing more that any previous registry with regards to PR etc.

If Mtld wants to achieve anything more than alternative extension status, they really need to get with the program (and it may very well be too late for that).

How can it be too late if the mobile web is practically embryonic right now?

 

[plaggypig]

The 2 webs argument has been brought up many times (including by many of the people involved in the creation of the Internet) and is the same argument many hold regarding all those new TLDs ICANN is supposedly going to come out with. I don't really see how it creates 2 webs myself any more than extensions other than .com create "2 webs".

It's not the same argument, it is specific to .mobi.

How can it be too late if the mobile web is practically embryonic right now?

There is no such thing as the "mobile web" and (hopefully) never will be, but mobile internet access - to the same web we have now, not a different .mobi one.

 

[bmugford]

With any decent device and connection you can just go to a regular website on a mobile device. I have a Dell Axim and regular websites load and look fine on it. As devices get more powerful and connections get faster, I don't see the point of .MOBI

Brad

 

[plaggypig]

With any decent device and connection you can just go to a regular website on a mobile device. I have a Dell Axim and regular websites load and look fine on it. As devices get more powerful and connections get faster, I don't see the point of .MOBI

Brad

Not just that, but there are better techniques for serving/styling content for mobile devices. A namespace for this purpose is pointless and destructive.

 

[mo_dork]

With any decent device and connection you can just go to a regular website on a mobile device. I have a Dell Axim and regular websites load and look fine on it. As devices get more powerful and connections get faster, I don't see the point of .MOBI

Brad

There have been so many discussions on namepros about viewing websites on mobile devices and the different content needs for people on-the-go, but every time we end up back at square one.

 

[hawkeye]

Not just that, but there are better techniques for serving/styling content for mobile devices. A namespace for this purpose is pointless and destructive.

And of course that 'technique' is..., .tel!! Another ...pointless extenstion!! But I'm sure you'll tout how 'needed' it is!! (same story, different extension! )

 

[plaggypig]

And of course that 'technique' is..., .tel!!

Um, nope? .tel is for another purpose entirely.

The techniques I was referring to include detecting mobile device on the server side based upon user-agent, using different style sheets, etc. As I said, there is no need for a dedicated namespace, and if one were to be widely used then we'd find ourselves with a massive problem.

So far as I've read on these forums counter-arguments are vague and provide no use case where a .mobi makes any sense. Do you know of one?

 

[mo_dork]

Not just that, but there are better techniques for serving/styling content for mobile devices. A namespace for this purpose is pointless and destructive.

Its constructive.
Having a generic mobi address will allow the host of new entrants that will build the amazing new applications and services for this new medium, to get some visibility. The .mobi TLD will have 100% market awareness within a few years.

 

[hawkeye]

Um, nope? .tel is for another purpose entirely.

The techniques I was referring to include detecting mobile device on the server side based upon user-agent, using different style sheets, etc. As I said, there is no need for a dedicated namespace, and if one were to be widely used then we'd find ourselves with a massive problem.

So far as I've read on these forums counter-arguments are vague and provide no use case where a .mobi makes any sense. Do you know of one?

Yes. dot Mobi ensures that a site is mobile compliant, and visable and useable to any cellphone or device with internet access! I know you and a few others, feel the whole world has and are using iphones, smartphones, and all the latest and greatest gadget devices, but you may be surprised to learn that the percentage of global usage and ownership of these phones/devices is really very, very, small!! Amazing huh?? In fact I don't know many wireless companies that offer those devices on their family plans for the same 'extremely low' prices of the phones they do offer? Do you?? So, since the day that every average user (worldwide, not just those that more fortunate or 'tech fanatical'), will have these types of devices so they too can view internet sites easily, is probably more than a few weeks away, I, and others can see a way that anyone will know if a site will or won't load on their device - today! And since currently there is no 'standard' for knowing if every website is, or is not, mobile visable, .mobi fills that void. Currently! Not a tough concept, but one that those who only want to see what they feel/think things should be like, and not how things actually are now, find hard to grasp.

So, tell us how you, or others, can make that "this site is mobile compliant guarantee" to the whole world of mobile surfers - TODAY??!

 

[-REECE-]

It's hard to have a generic .mobi when Mtld is hoarding 90% of them. Honestly, I can't see what good it's doing keeping them away from people who have plans to use them. They had a great idea with the RFP and even managed to land a few genuinely good endusers (eg. the weather channel for weather.mobi) -- no clue why they didn't continue in that direction but having 4000 good names which don't even resolve is ridiculous.

At the very least, Mtld should redirect all those domains to mtld.mobi so visitors can learn about .mobi.

Its constructive.
Having a generic mobi address will allow the host of new entrants that will build the amazing new applications and services for this new medium, to get some visibility. The .mobi TLD will have 100% market awareness within a few years.

So, tell us how you, or others, can make that "this site is mobile compliant guarantee" to the whole world of mobile surfers - TODAY??!

Have they actually started enforcing that guarantee of mobile compatibility?