.mobi MY FEARS FOR .Mobi

[gardenplant]

I've been thinking about this long and hard, and have come to the following thoughts:

Lets say I owned xxx.com and you owned xxx.mobi and you're selling it for $100,000. I would find it more prudent to get a technical whizzkid and pay him $20,000 to develop dedicated servers which will identify a mobile phone has typed xxx.com and display the content accordingly for mobiles (being automatically redirected to xxx.com/mobi as opposed to needing the .mobi), because there's so many people around the world that will still be typing in .coms on their pda's then thinking of typing .mobi.

My example would be this: If I bought a widescreen dvd without knowing, and played it on my standard T.V., I wouldn't then go out and buy a widescreen T.V. because I couldn't see the picture properly, I would just press the button on the remote that changes the screen ratio.

In my opinion the only .mobis that are worth anything are those that the company in charge has held back for auction, because those domains are the only ones that will profit from any secondary traffic .mobi MIGHT create.

I have bought $400 worth of .mobi's and I'm now questioning my purchases. I hate to think we're all gutting a gold mine, only to take it to the jewellers and be told it's fools gold.

Any comments?

 

[accent]

If (perhaps the biggest mobi "if" of all) .MOBI becomes the default setting of a large percentage of mobile devices then the .com owner who redirects would lose the mobile type-in traffic from those devices. Even without the default, if there is sufficent publicity and enough .MOBI sites with good content then there will develop a "mental default" where people on mobile devices will try the .MOBI first.

BTW it appears to be a simple matter to detect the device and redirect, no need for the expensive whizz kid.

 

[domaindigger]

because there's so many people around the world that will still be typing in .coms on their pda's then thinking of typing .mobi.

Not if the addresses default to .mobi automatically on PDA's, which is not an unrealistic expectation considering 100% of .mobi's will be viewable on small screens, something that can't be said about .com's. Since mobile phone makers (e.g. Nokia, Samsung, etc.) are backing .mobi, expect this to be the case.

 

[cityforums.com]

Your fears demonstrate a balanced outlook of reality.

.mobi might turn out to be the next new.net ... alot

of people are sticking their heads in the sand ... go

check out Palm.com, RIM.com, Google, Microsoft etc etc etc

NONE of them are saying anything about .mobi becoming

default ... this is pure hype from those that have most

to gain from .mobi sales. This borders on false advertising.

On the other hand I love the way sedo.com makes one

of my .mobi look ... http://escortes.mobi/

:tri:

 

[binaryman]

Yes I have also been wondering why these big .Mobi backers are not saying anything at all about .Mobi. One would think that they would be making a lot of advertising for it to make the public aware of the fact that it is coming. Even the manager of the local VODAPHONE shop in town here has never even heard of .MOBI

 

[Traveler]

Yes I have also been wondering why these big .Mobi backers are not saying anything at all about .Mobi. One would think that they would be making a lot of advertising for it to make the public aware of the fact that it is coming. Even the manager of the local VODAPHONE shop in town here has never even heard of .MOBI

What would be the point of telling someone about .mobi now? The premium words are still reserved and will go to those with a plan for the name. This extension is being rolled out in a very slow and intelligent way. When the premium names have been sold and developed and you don't see any advertising, then you should worry!

I certainly would not want to spend my advertising dollars telling people "hey go check out the 100 sites or so that are developed with a .mobi extension".

 

[nrmillions]

I've been thinking about this long and hard, and have come to the following thoughts:

Lets say I owned xxx.com and you owned xxx.mobi and you're selling it for $100,000. I would find it more prudent to get a technical whizzkid and pay him $20,000 to develop dedicated servers which will identify a mobile phone has typed xxx.com and display the content accordingly for mobiles (being automatically redirected to xxx.com/mobi as opposed to needing the .mobi), because there's so many people around the world that will still be typing in .coms on their pda's then thinking of typing .mobi.

My example would be this: If I bought a widescreen dvd without knowing, and played it on my standard T.V., I wouldn't then go out and buy a widescreen T.V. because I couldn't see the picture properly, I would just press the button on the remote that changes the screen ratio.

In my opinion the only .mobis that are worth anything are those that the company in charge has held back for auction, because those domains are the only ones that will profit from any secondary traffic .mobi MIGHT create.

I have bought $400 worth of .mobi's and I'm now questioning my purchases. I hate to think we're all gutting a gold mine, only to take it to the jewellers and be told it's fools gold.

Any comments?

The person with the .com doesnt have to buy the .mobi just like they dont have to buy the .net or the .org. The mobi extention should hold its own value based on the quality of the names you have. If you owned xxx.mobi and the owner of xxx.com doesnt want to buy your xxx.mobi then I am sure some other company would want to buy xxx.mobi right away if mobi were to become popular. I also think it is strange that none of these mobi backers even mention anything about mobi on their own sites.

 

[gardenplant]

There are a few reasons why I'm saying this.

1. No-one seems to be taking this extension seriously. I saw that diamonds.com sold for $7.5 million and I looked to see if it had been registered in the .mobi extension and sure enough it had, but by an individual in mid-October way after the landrush period, and I know if I had paid $7.5 million for diamonds.com I would make sure I'd buy it in any crappy extension that came out.

(I'm not saying anyone who owns the .com would have to or indeed need to buy the .mobi extension).

2. I just watched a bbc news interview with the c.e.o. of Palm, the pda guys. He was happily showing off his device with the integration of microsoft software, surfing the web with the .com extension for all the websites he was viewing, no mention of a .mobi and you'd think he would be one of the main guys pushing this extension.

(So in response to the .mobi extension default that you talked about domaindigger I'm not so sure about it).

3. The only way I believe this will take off is to have a built in .mobi button on your mobile/pda but then again it would be just as easy to have a .com button built in instead. It should have really been left down to the dotMobi guys to market it to the mobile world and the general public (not saying they've forced us to buy anything) but I think they're actually relying on us to market it for them.

Thanks for the response guys!!, I'm enjoying reading your different views on this.

 

[domaindigger]

2. I just watched a bbc news interview with the c.e.o. of Palm, the pda guys. He was happily showing off his device with the integration of microsoft software, surfing the web with the .com extension for all the websites he was viewing, no mention of a .mobi and you'd think he would be one of the main guys pushing this extension.

(So in response to the .mobi extension default that you talked about domaindigger I'm not so sure about it).

You bring up valid points. But think of it this way: how does something become a defacto standard? Why does everyone associate the internet with .com? Because the first addresses were ALL .com and people got used to and familiar with .com, so much so that other extensions were no where near as successful when introduced since people did not automatically associate them with the internet. Now think about what's going to happen as the mobile internet becomes more and more ubiquitous. People might naturally first try entering .com's...but many .com's won't display correctly...then they'll hear about .mobi and try that out and after visiting a few .mobi sites they'll instinctively learn that EVERY .mobi they visit displays beautifully. So what's going to happen next time they want to buy flowers on the go, will they go to flowers.com or .mobi? They'll instinctively go to the .mobi, and at that point .mobi becomes the defacto standard of the mobile internet. :imho: (This is an oversimplification obviously to make my point.)

 

[GeoOwners]

What would be the point of telling someone about .mobi now? The premium words are still reserved and will go to those with a plan for the name. This extension is being rolled out in a very slow and intelligent way. When the premium names have been sold and developed and you don't see any advertising, then you should worry!

I certainly would not want to spend my advertising dollars telling people "hey go check out the 100 sites or so that are developed with a .mobi extension".

Bingo...

My bet is at the point where you CAN"T buy a phone that DOESN"T have internet capabilities AND the phone companies have a price war on net service (example: unlimited surfing for 9.99 month) THEN all hell will break loose for .mobi.

also, compare our situation to video games...they dont sell the games before the consoles are out ...
couple years or so...

 

[gardenplant]

I just came across this article, have a read through it guys, it's quite interesting. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5015856.stm

I'm sorry to say but I'm just experiencing a loss of confidence in the extension.

I believe if mobiles/pda's only displayed .mobi content properly, the whole experience will just cave in on itself, as you'd be ommiting so much content and information from all the other websites operating under other TLD's.

This is a qoute from the above link/article:

"Although a supporter of the mobile web, he believes that efforts should focus on making existing content smart enough to be able to recognise what kind of device it is being viewed on, large or small." inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, (Kind of what I said in an earlier post). N.B. He's also publically opposed the domain extension.

 

[compubahn]

"Although a supporter of the mobile web, he believes that efforts should focus on making existing content smart enough to be able to recognise what kind of device it is being viewed on, large or small." inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, (Kind of what I said in an earlier post). N.B. He's also publically opposed the domain extension.

The techniques used to do this (sniffers/JS) are not new, yet most sites still do not employ them or build to the older, uninspired, wap style. With no intention of offending anyone, those who support making existing content mobile compliant on detection have, by all appearances, done an insufficient job of spreading that philosophy. With a few notable exceptions, surfing the web on my phone still sucks.

The opportunity with .mobi is in the creation of a default or a habit... visiting .mobi sites on your mobile because they just work. Consistently. No surprises. As a default, .mobi becomes a keyword system. This is powerful stuff... if it happens. Obviously, if that habit or default is not successfully created, these names will not be worth quite as much.

That said, it is always healthy to play devils advocate. There are several threads which could be accurately summarized as: "You might get rich. You might lose all your money. Gamble only what you can afford to lose."

It should be noted that if .mobi has any success, there will likely be an increase of non-mobi sites that begin building for mobile access. By then, people like me will have already begun eating their lunch. Now, not two years from now, is the time to take your position(s).

I'm still registering names. It's like a candy store - but the good candy is a little tougher to find at this point.

Eric