.mobi Why are .Mobi backers so reluctant to have .Mobi as default?

[binaryman]

Pinky-Brand: Another is utilizing the resources and reach of our investors who are the big guns in search, device manufacturing, carriers, etc.
Pinky-Brand: Yes one of the most common questions that I get is about defaulting to .MOBI so you don't have to type .MOBI on the phone.
Pinky-Brand: The answer is we are working with our investors, the browser folks and the operating system folks towards that goal.
Pinky-Brand: We are actively doing this.
Pinky-Brand: Keep in mind that there are 7+ mobile browsers and 7+ mobile operating systems out there...it is not quite as easy as in the PC world.

I would have thought that this would have been a crucial top-priority issue that should have been dealt with and confirmed before launching .Mobi
Plus why are these backers of .Mobi so reluctunt to have .Mobi as default? I mean they are backing .Mobi aren't they? Why then are these talks required? If they are backing .Mobi then there should be no problem isn't it?
Just my 1cents worth

 

[mjnels]

he said:

"The answer is we are working with our investors, the browser folks and the operating system folks towards that goal."



The investors are probably the easy ones... but he mentioned the phone browser folks and the phone OS folks...which are not all on board as sponsors.. and not all phones use a microsoft product


What he was saying about the PC world is: it would be a lot easier getting the popular browser manufacturers and OS makers to agree to this in the PC world.
because guess who makes the worlds most popular Operating System and web browser in the PC world... yep.. no big suprise there... microsoft.

 

[cityforums.com]

1. Do you really think the manufacturers and browser people

care about .mobi being default ? Mobile browsing has

to default to the INTERNET and not 300,000 mostly

undeveloped, parked domains.

2. It has occurred to me that some .TVs domains will be

MORE mobile ideal with the upcoming tv broadcasting

on mobiles. (I think Millers would agree with this last

point)

 

[mjnels]

Do you really think the manufacturers and browser people

care about .mobi being default ? Mobile browsing has

to default to the INTERNET.

This is BS imho.

default to the internet........ heh

rigggggghhhtt. okaaaayyy..

 

[fautebol]

When I use my phone, now it does not default to .com. I have to type google.com or google.mobi.

I think that it defaults to nothing to make it a pain in the ass to surf so I go to the Vodafone closed portal. Evertything is made on my sony Ericsson and by my provider to make me go to the Vodafone portal. It's way much easier to use. I really had to look to find how to surf with url adresses. I don't know about the US, but :imho: the question of the default extension now it's not .com versus .mobi, but closed monopolistic portal versus open web.

And I suppose that between my provider, Ericsson and Vodafone, there must be some contracts that are not so easy to change.

 

[cityforums.com]

When I use my phone, now it does not default to .com. I have to type google.com or google.mobi.

I think that it defaults to nothing to make it a pain in the ass to surf so I go to the Vodafone closed portal. Evertything is made on my sony Ericsson and by my provider to make me go to the Vodafone portal. It's way much easier to use. I really had to look to find how to surf with url adresses. I don't know about the US, but :imho: the question of the default extension now it's not .com versus .mobi, but closed monopolistic portal versus open web.

And I suppose that between my provider, Ericsson and Vodafone, there must be some contracts that are not so easy to change.

Excellent point there ... some providers will likely

go the AOHELL route and ignore .mobi all together ...

by doing this they can monitize THEIR traffic and provide

a service to their customers as well. I'll bet the .mobi

speculators never thought of this curve ball being thrown

at them. I certainly missed that one before I bought mine.

Pray the wireless providers don't get smart !

 

[estibot.com]

It would be quite a feat to get the devices default to some TLD...

There is no default TLD for PC browsers either.

Only way I see it is to have the device scan the tld's for some indication that a site would comply with the mobile guidelines, then default to that site. Sorry I can't put this in technical terms, I'm not a techie, perhaps some string or piece of code verifying compliance if you know what I mean?

Would not matter whether it is a .mobi or .tv or whatever, just as long as the site itself is compatible with mobile browsing. Or default to dotcom and look for a redirect to dotcom.com/mobile

Just the thoughts of an uninitiated person.

 

[cityforums.com]

It would be quite a feat to get the devices default to some TLD...

There is no default TLD for PC browsers either.

Only way I see it is to have the device scan the tld's for some indication that a site would comply with the mobile guidelines, then default to that site. Sorry I can't put this in technical terms, I'm not a techie, perhaps some string or piece of code verifying compliance if you know what I mean?

Would not matter whether it is a .mobi or .tv or whatever, just as long as the site itself is compatible with mobile browsing. Or default to dotcom and look for a redirect to dotcom.com/mobile

Just the thoughts of an uninitiated person.

The wireless providers would be in a great position

to provide such a portal.

 

[fautebol]

Excellent point there ... some providers will likely

go the AOHELL route and ignore .mobi all together ...

by doing this they can monitize THEIR traffic and provide

a service to their customers as well. I'll bet the .mobi

speculators never thought of this curve ball being thrown

at them. I certainly missed that one before I bought mine.

Pray the wireless providers don't get smart !

In Europe they are in the AOHELL route right now. If I did understand correctly .mobi, the real point of .mobi was to agree on a standard to stop this. I am not really worried about the AOHELL route (with or without .mobi) in the mid-term, because I don't think in the long run it could be maintained.

But, I don't expect a provider to easily say ok now there is .mobi, I'm a backer, I stop my portal and evertything is going to open surf (.mobi or whatever), even if others continue with their closed portal. Each time I want the soccer results with the Vodafone portal, I pay for that. People pay for ringtones, etc...Now, you go and advertise and backup mobile web and .mobi and nobody will pay anymore for soccer results (except bandwith of course).

I'm not in this industry, thus I cannot balance these with more people surfing, but if you have a closed portal you try to keep your share for the longest possible...

So, my point is simply that you cannot say this is easy and should have already been done. I guess that when or if they really back-up .mobi, it will be everybody at the same time and pushing for people changing phones. I don't say that there will be a default extension or that .mobi will suceed as a well-known extension. But, I don't see anything negative in Pinky Brand's answer.

 

[mjnels]

dunno... back in the dayo i remember aol's interface was like "the internet for dummies"

but they had something goin for them back then..which is about 10 years ago now!

what they had goin is the internet was brand new and so it was easier to "trick" people into thinking this whole portal idea was the entire internet..


i dont know how long people will swallow the idea of a closed portal when a couple of the wireless giants start to really popularize the-real-internet-on-your-phone and it starts to work pretty nice...

this has nothing to do with .mobi.... its just a matter of time imo until closed portals are history.

 

[Broker]

"but closed monopolistic portal versus open web".

sorry, can someone explain this for the dummy?

Thanks.

 

[danmanmktng]

Companies have tried closed portals before -- compuserve, AOL .. it's silly and can never work. One company simply can't provide the same level of content as can an entire world worth of content producers. Sprint and Verizon can try and delay it as long as they want, but if they wait too long they'll lose business.

There will be an open mobile web standard, just a question of whether .mobi will be a part of it.

 

[mjnels]

"but closed monopolistic portal versus open web".

sorry, can someone explain this for the dummy?

Thanks.

closed portal = putting you inside a room and saying "hey you can buy anything here, go nuts"

but everything in the room is owned by them...



open web = walking around the street and choosing what store to go into..

 

[think]

I think Pinky Brand was quite clear as to the why and when MOBI might become default.

Basically they won't push for a dot Mobi default until there is enough content out there to warrant it.

Having dot Mobi be default right now is like inviting people to shop at a shopping mall and you are just breaking ground.............

 

[mjnels]

I think Pinky Brand was quite clear as to the why and when MOBI might become default.

Basically they won't push for a dot Mobi default until there is enough content out there to warrant it.

Having dot Mobi be default right now is like inviting people to shop at a shopping mall and you are just breaking ground.............

bingo!


i had a question in queue that would have asked part of that...

basically said, "when the sponsors feel the time is right and there are enough developed .mobi websites out there, do they have plans to advertise their own .mobi in major media outlets..."

what i was most interested in is television...to reach the average joe on his couch.. but the time is not now.. it could be.. but i think it would be much better when there are many many developed .mobi sites and THEN the sponsors start advertising a .mobi site themselves for some things....

 

[think]

bingo!


i had a question in queue that would have asked just that...

basically said, "when the sponsors feel the time is right and there are enough developed .mobi websites out there, do they have plans to advertise their own .mobi in major media outlets..."

what i was most interested in is television...to reach the average joe on his couch.. but the time is not now.. it could be.. but i think it would be much better when there are many many developed .mobi sites and THEN the sponsors start advertising a .mobi site themselves for some things....

I like your train of thought

This is why I think industry synchronicity is very important to all of our bottom lines.

Target dates for developed content and cooperative advertising efforts could be extremely beneficial to all segments of the mobile internet industry.

The more communication and cooperation there is between the different industry sectors the better the chances are for Dot Mobi being profitable and successful for all of us ........

 

[mjnels]

Yep, and if it is apparent to somebody like me with only a highschool education.. i can only wonder what industry experts have up their sleeves..

a lot of people are questioning how strongly the sponsors are actually going to support .mobi.... what it means to be a "sponsor" or "backer"...honestly i would like a straight answer to this myself, perhaps that should be asked and worded in detail in the next chat session.


say what you want about .mobi.... i think its domain speculation at its best.

 

[maxwellsmart]

Excellent and Important discussion.

In the U.S. big providers like Verizon an Sprint want to have their own 'closed internet'.
They are not interested in .mobi, they want it all. Very good analogy to the old days of AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve.

Some people will think that the closed systems are fine, but after time, they will demand the freedom to roam the mobile internet. The closed systems will not handle some things that people want to access (gambling and porn).

The 'vice' sites have driven the internet, they may very well open the mobile internet as well.

 

[cityforums.com]

Companies have tried closed portals before -- compuserve, AOL .. it's silly and can never work. One company simply can't provide the same level of content as can an entire world worth of content producers. Sprint and Verizon can try and delay it as long as they want, but if they wait too long they'll lose business.

There will be an open mobile web standard, just a question of whether .mobi will be a part of it.

How can a wireless provider loose business if they decide

to default to their portal ?

They could only gain from this in the short term and would

explain why NONE of them mention .mobi ... now it

all makes sense.

 

[newton]

There will be open source browsers along with developers who will write plugins for these browsers .. how difficult would it be to write one that defaults sites to dot mobi If i type in firefox a url without the extension it always defaults to the dot com.

This is a great write-up on how you can maximise your mobile phone and surfing on it .. http://www.mobalrental.com/news/sexy-cell.asp