I will be recording a podcast with Neil Edwards, CEO of dotMobi this coming Friday (May 11th). According to their website dotMobi is:
is the first top level domain dedicated to delivering the internet to the mobile phone.
If you have any questions you’d like me to put to Neil, please feel free to leave them in the comments of this post.
1: What has happened to the first RFP?
2: Are all Premium names still going to be released in the first 2 years?
3: What percentage of Premium names will be released via RFP versus auction?
4: Can you provide some specifics regarding the financial investment of the Corporate investors?
5: Will the code compliance be enforced? If so, when?
6: What advertising and consumer awareness efforts will mTLD be doing to promote .mobi to the public? When will we see this happening?
Firstly thank you for the documentation, procedures and tools which have made targeting mobile users and devices easier.
However why have .mobi at all? It is an extra character, or two, to type over already popular TLDs. .mobi is unfamiliar to users and is extra cost for site owners (both to buy the domain and to setup and maintain plus there is the usual trademark and domain squatting disputes to deal with all over again).
Would not an alternative campaign to educate site owners of device detection and handling on their primary domains have been better?
My basic problem with dotMobi is that the delivery of data on the world wide web to differing devices should not hang on a TLD. A TLD should not denote the device the content is designed for. A properly programmed and administered .com can deliver tailored content to the requesting device.
With this direction we will continue to invent TLDs to handle new devices, ad nauseum.
Proper usage of primary domains would mean users would not have to use alternative domains and site owners would not have to market alternative domains.
I also worry that a profit seeking company that enforces its own rules in their own market, like the .mobi TLD space, will not have its users in mind. Should dotMobi not be a wider internet initiative, possibly not for profit?
Thanks again though for the documentation, tools and procedures, we use them for our .com quite effectively.
Are there any plans to release city, country, and state names all currently reserved?
How much of the revinue being made from registrations is going twards brand awarness and advertising the benifits of .mobi websites?
The success of .mobi hinges on the widespread public recognition that .mobi sites are mobile friendly, which means essentially formatted for a small screen, low bandwidth requirements, and easily navigated using lowest common denominator phone characteristics. People on mobile data plans quite often pay high bandwidth costs and don’t want to take a chance surfing unknown sites for fear of a lousy and costly experience.
Some .com sites are already setup to recognize that the surfer is using a mobile phone or pda and redirect to the appropriate mobile formatted content, however, this is only useful to those who already know this fact. 99% of sites are not setup to recognize mobiles yet. A .mobi site lets the mobile surfer know that unknown.mobi is likely to be a positive experience for them.
Up to now mobile internet has been stifled by carriers’ high data plan costs and walled garden offerings. People want an open mobile internet, and .mobi serves a catalyst for the provision of access to worldwide content far exceeding what any walled garden could provide.
In less than a year more than 500,000 .mobi names have been registered and already many large organizations are providing .mobi sites to supplement their .com sites, such as BMW.mobi, NBA.mobi, SAS.mobi, and potentially thousands more, if we include all those companies that have registered their .mobi to protect their TM.
Even if a company is already serving mobile friendly content either through an automatic redirect or through a subdomain such as mobile.website.com, if they have registered website.mobi to protect their TM they will soon realize the advantage of simply using their .mobi address to redirect people to their mobile content.
It’s a very simple step that makes a lot of sense. With the projected explosion in mobile advertising, it’s a no-brainer to take advantage of your .mobi if you’ve got it.
For this reason, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the popularity of .mobi growing incredibly quickly, as corporations start to see the wisdom of .mobi as a branding tool, and the public sees .mobi all over the place.
As for the extra digit to be typed in .mobi versus .com, this is a very minor inconvenience in the big picture. Picture this: .mobi reaches the critical mass that cellphone makers install .mobi hotkeys or .mobi browser defaults into their phones.
Keep in mind that Nokia and Samsung are among the investors and proponents of the .mobi initiative. They may just be waiting for sufficient .mobi content - perhaps a tipping point will be reached in 2008?
What kind of support you can offer to a company who take the initiative to develop thousands of .mobi’s in one year?
Thank you for interviewing Neil and discussing Dot Mobi.
1. What can be done to help Dot Mobi developers by more in sync with the different sectors of the mobile internet industry for better performance and promotion of the Dot Mobi brand?
2. I’m grateful for Neil taking the time to be here and for the other Dot Mobi representatives like Pinky Brand for helping the development and domain community keep up and understand what is happening with mobile internet. Knowing that Dot Mobi is very busy would the company consider paid or non paid interns to help groups like MAG communicate updates, and plans to the development and domain forums?
3. Is there anyway to create a discussion of cross marketing and promotion for Dot Mobi sites?
Example: site1.mobi , site2.mobi, brandx.mobi , etc all co-op to do promotions like TV commercials that promote the Mobi brand as well as the individual sites etc.
Thank you again for this chance to participate.
Best wishes,
C.T. Kirkpatrick
Establishing an identity on the Internet is very important for both large and small companies. Currently in the “dotcom” universe, a company in the U.S. would have to register with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in order to establish a trademark for their name or brand.
Question 1:
Will there be any assistance and or tools to aid newly formed companies to help them establish trademarks of their names and or brands in association with DotMobi?
An Example of one tool: Would be a International Registry separate from that of ICANN that is managed by the DotMobi Association that contains the company’s name, executive officers, etc and the associating “dotmobi” domain name that was registered or owned by that company or individual. This registry could also hold patent numbers, copyright information, and other types of “I.P.” information to show ownership and identity association with their “DotMobi” domain.
During the initial start of the “DotMobi” registration period last year, there was a “Sunrise Period” to allow companies to register their brands and trademarks in the “DotMobi” space prior to registration being opened to the general public.
Question 2:
Will there be or can there be another “Sunrise Period” to allow those companies and individuals to register again for “Foreign-Character Set” domain names in “DotMobi” space prior to the registration process being opened to the general public?
Example 1: A company or individual registers and owns: “francais.mobi”. Can they then be giving the opportunity to register: “français.mobi” as a “Foreign-Character Set” domain name in the “DotMobi” space” during a sunrise period before registration is open to the general public?
Example 2: A company or individual registers and owns: “bundeslander.mobi”. Can they then be giving the opportunity to register: “bundesländer.mobi” as a “Foreign-Character Set” domain name in the “DotMobi” space” during a sunrise period before registration is open to the general public?
Thank you.
Current event prompts another very important question:
Just noticed today that Helsinki.mobi is live. Please, I beg you, please elaborate how a reserved name is now a developed site?
Good Question PG!
1) Does mtld contact potential end-users before auctioning premium names? (For example, did mtld contact Pizza Hut and Domino’s when it auctioned off Pizza.mobi which sold for only $21,000?)
2) What is mtld specifically doing to ensure .mobi becomes the default and defacto standard of the mobile internet?
3) Why aren’t mtld investors such as Google and Microsoft using and promoting .mobi versions of their sites? Will they in the future? (The mtld investors alone have enough reach and influence to make .mobi the default mobile internet extension, so this is an important point.)
Thanks.
My Number One question is a statement - Please consider the long term value of placing the premium names still held by dotMobi in the RFP process so they will be developed rather than auctions where they end up parked.
I have previously communicated with Pinky regarding the premium and reserved names being hosted rather than left to show an un resolving page! It still hasn’t been done, YOU (mtld) have reserved these as premium names knowingly they will receive alot of attention and type in traffic. So why create a crappy first time experience by a new user by letting them see an unresolving webpage and then let them slip away without being impressed with the mobile web and .mobi in general, this is no way to run an innovative and forward thinking industry!!!
What specifically is being done to educate large corporations about the benefits of obtaining and utilizing the .mobi extension verses rewriting some code for their .com to fit the mobile environment?
What’s being done encourage them to promote thier .mobi site, if they have one, rather than promoting a mobile version of their .com such as xyz.com/mobile?
It seems that many companies are deciding, at least at this point, to use a .com subdomain instead, which in my mind totally defeats the purpose of the extension.
What would you say is the number 1 advantage for a company to use .mobi, rather than a .com subdomain?
Edwards also claimed that consumers won’t necessarily have to key in the actual characters - .mobi - when visiting a site. That’s because browsers from Access, Nokia and Openwave will automatically default to assuming that the user wants the .mobi domain, not the .com site.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=31507
Will you keep your word on this? It’s one of the reasons I bought a lot of .mobi’s
Did the interview happen?
Hi!
Thank you for your leadership and hope to us.
Kind Regards,
Yelo
PG,
Yes the interview happened on Friday, as advertised! I asked your questions, thanks for leaving them.
I’ll publish the interview later this week when I get a couple of spare hours to do the editing and write-up.
Thanks for the interest.
Thanks Tom for doing this, I’m very much looking forward to the interview.
What scripts can be used to monetize .mobi names with adsense and google search adsense? Does google have an alternate program for monetization of .mobi names?
Thanks.
“PG,
Yes the interview happened on Friday, as advertised! I asked your questions, thanks for leaving them.
I’ll publish the interview later this week when I get a couple of spare hours to do the editing and write-up.
Thanks for the interest.”
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