.mobi Mobi - You're not going to like this.

[homebuyer]

Visit http://www.ktvu.com on your PC
Visit http://www.ktvu.com on your handheld.

The former is a regular site and the latter is a mobile device sized site.

If you want to see what it looks like on a mobile device visit http://ready.mobi and type in the box www.ktvu.com (takes a long time to load). Click on one of the cellphones to scroll through the website as if you were on that handheld.

So why do we need a mobi domain now?

 

[MadAboutDomains]

everyone has known about this way of doing things for a long time.... and sites have been oing this since before the .MOBI came along.

apprently the .MOBI is different... but I don't believe in its differences to sanction the creation of the .MOBI

 

[circa1850]

So why do we need a mobi domain now?

Probably because the overall site ranked a 3 and I see these messages:

XHTML Mobile Profile
help me fix it
Your page does not use XHTML Mobile Profile

XHTML-MP should be used as the default markup for your pages. Use of XHTML-MP ensures that your pages will work on the widest variety of mobile devices as well as on desktop browsers. The following graph shows how XHTML-MP is supported by the overwhelming majority of mobile browsers.

Valid Markup
help me fix it
Your page markup does not validate

You should use valid XHTML Mobile Profile for your pages. Non-validating markup may not display correctly or efficiently on mobile devices. In some cases, particularly on older phones, non-validating XHTML-MP will not render at all, and the user will see only an error message in their browser.

FAIL near line 9, col 32
Attribute "border" must be declared for element type "table".
FAIL near line 10, col 82
Open quote is expected for attribute "border" associated with an element type "img".

http://www.ktvu.com scored 3 out of 5

 

[Traveler]

You scared me there for a second. Developers and many domainers know about this. It is nothing new.

The fact that you didn't know about it shows the need for .mobi. Most, if not the vast majority of people don't know a site may look different on their mobile device. The .mobi will fix that problem. When they see the .mobi extension they will know it works.

 

[circa1850]

I keep getting the same error messages regarding the site not being very compliant with mobile formatting.

The referenced news site has this on their site:

http://www.ktvu.com/wirelessnews/index.html

Does it actually look that way? Like I say, it does not resolve for me.

It may be a firefox browser thing which is even more reason for mobi...it is a format and won't be browser specific. As long as the site is mobi compliant all will resolve in the same manner as I understand it.

 

[Traveler]

I keep getting the same error messages regarding the site not being very compliant with mobile formatting.

The referenced news site has this on their site:

http://www.ktvu.com/wirelessnews/index.html

Does it actually look that way? Like I say, it does not resolve for me.

It may be a firefox browser thing which is even more reason for mobi...it is a format and won't be browser specific. As long as the site is mobi compliant all will resolve in the same manner as I understand it.

I really don't think it matters how mobi compliant this website is. I think point of the thread was to illustrate that .coms can be mobile compliant. That is a fact.

However, I think that the fact this thread was started shows how few people realize a .com can be rendered on a mobile device.

 

[Alan Glennon]

Visit http://www.ktvu.com on your PC...

Cool. Nice mobile sites provide more reason for people to purchase internet for their mobile devices.

If you use the internet on a mobile device, you realize the need for .mobi. This KTVU site worked well with my phone, but I cringed as it loaded because there was a good chance it would kill my phone. It didn't, but problems are common even when the .com site is supposed to be mobile friendly. On the flip side, I worry that the .mobi registry won't enforce their requirements. If that happens, .mobi will be worthless.

Thanks for the link!

 

[Traveler]

I worry that the .mobi registry won't enforce their requirements. If that happens, .mobi will be worthless.

I totally agree.

 

[-Ehsan-]

one website wont matter look at 1000 other sites whic are .mobi rather than looking at one .com lol

 

[hanogl]

The big question here is not about technical possibilities but about marketing and recognition. Sure, you can have mobile phone compatible pages on a .com domain, but most people will not know. However, if they see a .mobi web address they WILL know it works on a mobile phone.

Look at it like this: you are sitting in the train and you want to check some stock quotes on your mobile phone. Now you see two ads in the magazine you are reading, one advertising stocks.com and the other stocks.mobi Which one will you try first?

 

[Traveler]

The big question here is not about technical possibilities but about marketing and recognition. Sure, you can have mobile phone compatible pages on a .com domain, but most people will not know. However, if they see a .mobi web address they WILL know it works on a mobile phone.

Look at it like this: you are sitting in the train and you want to check some stock quotes on your mobile phone. Now you see two ads in the magazine you are reading, one advertising stocks.com and the other stocks.mobi Which one will you try first?

Exactly

Exactly

and speaking of stocks.mobi... :hehe: :sold:

 

[homebuyer]

Up in the air.

Only time will tell.

 

[nombre]

guess who owns ktvu.mobi ???

i'll start to worry if they stay with ktvu.com and don't route their mobile web through the mobi ........which they won't do .........look for their mobile site to go mobi soon

did a very quick and dirty scrub of the K stations (west of mississippi), there are about 1100 and about 500 have regged their mobis

of the 600 unregged mobi's most are pbs, repeaters or small independents

it looks like virtually all of the large, network or chain owned stations have grabbed their mobis so i think we will see them follow

fox is a trend setter for better or worse

 

[GeoOwners]

I totally agree.

I wont mind...then I can make full blown website from my .mobis and they will still be worthwhile...imagine if I could put a full blown site on Blackjackgames.mobi !


just thinking outloud...


.

 

[Pred]

guess who owns ktvu.mobi ???

i'll start to worry if they stay with ktvu.com and don't route their mobile web through the mobi ........which they won't do .........look for their mobile site to go mobi soon

did a very quick and dirty scrub of the K stations (west of mississippi), there are about 1100 and about 500 have regged their mobis

of the 600 unregged mobi's most are pbs, repeaters or small independents

it looks like virtually all of the large, network or chain owned stations have grabbed their mobis so i think we will see them follow

fox is a trend setter for better or worse

nice post
rep added

 

[circa1850]

guess who owns ktvu.mobi ???

i'll start to worry if they stay with ktvu.com and don't route their mobile web through the mobi ........which they won't do .........look for their mobile site to go mobi soon

did a very quick and dirty scrub of the K stations (west of mississippi), there are about 1100 and about 500 have regged their mobis

of the 600 unregged mobi's most are pbs, repeaters or small independents

it looks like virtually all of the large, network or chain owned stations have grabbed their mobis so i think we will see them follow

fox is a trend setter for better or worse

Kind of the point I was trying to make.

.com for mobi format is not the best route. Its like looking at www.bmw.com on your computer in front of you and then looking at www.bmw.mobi on the same screen. Does that make sense...to look at a .mobi site on an 19" monitor? Does it seem to be a wise use of the format intended to accomodate a dot com?

It is not supposed to.

Two different formats, two different arenas, some content co-existing.

The other point I was trying to make regarding the browsers; directing to a site that some browsers will work in and others will not is another very valid reason for .mobi. I do not have to concern myself which browser i use if I have a mobile device to look at a mobile page.

I am not a techy, but will they all not resolve in the same manner if they are specifically set up for .mobi?

Sorry if my point was lost, I was trying to be subtle. But the point of "looky looky...why do we need mobi?" was lost on me when I had to change browsers to view what the post was all about. That more or less proved the point that all was not well in the land of one for all, all for one.

An error message is an error message. If it is not resolving it is not resolving. A 3 is a 3, a 5 is a 5 when we are talking compliant and resolving.

 

[homebuyer]

What Could Be Happening

Many corporations could be registering the mobis simply as a precautionary measure in case the mobis become widely accepted and used. What's $10 to any company?

Nevertheless, no other TLD since the .com has generated this kind of "preventative" registration, IMHO. It is clear that businesses are jumping on board in record numbers. The only question left is will the general public jump on board, too?

For a while there, I was wishy washy in my mobi expectations. Yesterday, however, I was shopping at a Fry's Electronics when I happened upon their Sprint, MetroPCS, and other wireless vendors' displays of hand-helds. There were several units that had decent-sized screens and mini-keyboards. I didn't need one, but I surely wanted one.

The question I keep asking myself is will I surf .mobi or .com sites with it, or both? If I just wanted to type in the domain name in the browser, I'd probably be confident about the .mobis because of their compliance nature. If I used a search engine, it's apparently obvious to me that "mobile compliant" will eventually be in every search engine results of a particular domain, so I'd just click on the web site, be it .mobi or .com.

Perhaps .mobis will be accepted for a while, but sooner or later .com sites will add code to make their individual sites viewable on both screens. Just look at how quickly webmasters added meta tags and other codes. It will happen.

On a final note, one saving grace of the mobi is its ability to become a global TLD, bringing together all country code TLDs under one mobile umbrella. Add to that a .mobi button on hand-helds, and both the users and webmasters will have two good reasons to go mobi.

 

[nombre]

homebuyer
yes, you are correct many of those regs are preventative and some are squatters no doubt, but i don't think that will ultimately be the case, i think many of them are really going to use them as mobi's

fox is no small news outlet, if other networks/outlets/stations see fox using mobi then they will also

the issue of .com using redirects has been discussed at length, everyone has an opinion,

i tried for a long time to access the web from a wireless palm and it _never_ worked well

nokia, samsung, google, ericcson, vodafone et al wouldn't be doing mobi for fun or for some kind of money grab .... they are doing it because they know this field (accessing the net on mobile devices) and they know it just ain't working well and some kind of new approach is needed, mobi is that new approach

maybe i'm naive but i really do not believe that if dot com redirects and user switching was really working well, we wouldn't even see mobi make the light of day

 

[hugegrowth]

- yawn - nothing new. if you are going to make a mobile site and the .com is taken, you can reg or buy the .mobi for cheaper. .mobi tells people right away that it's a mobile site. lot's of big companies seem to be using .mobi addresses.

That's just like saying - hey, look at blahblah.ws - it works, so why do we need .com?
or .net, .org, .info, .biz for that matter?

 

[Alan Glennon]

I haven't looked into the mobile detection infrastructure requirements, but this thread may be the place to ask:
Could someone point me to a code snippet or script (or appropriate discussion thread) that detects a mobile device on my .com address and forwards the user to the associated .mobi? It would be quite helpful.