Hi,

I have found my site doesn't work with mobile phones - not really amazed that it doesn't to be honest.

Is it worth developing a .mobi version of the site? Is there a special search engine that serves these .mobi sites etc... or is it a waste of time or a good investment for the future?

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http://www.dvd-and-media.com/ Largest suppliers of DVD cases in the UK
http://www.talkangling.co.uk/ Busiest fishing tackle and angling chat site in the UK

Google has a mobile-centric search engine at mobile.google.com. I think if your products or services are useful to people on the road a mobi site could definitely be an asset. For instance, I would not necessarily create a mobile site for a bookstore, but a restaurant or club, definitely. (reservations, specials, etc). There has to be some benefit to the mobile content to justify it, I think.

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The best way to learn anything, is to question everything.

So you dont see a day when everyone is browsing on a mobile device (or a much increased percentage) - obviously this was what was envisaged when WAP was invented - although it came to be known as WAP is CRAP!

However surely there will come a day when we all have a handheld device with a proper browser on it and lets say a 4" touch screen... but what I am getting at is - I take your point that .mobi is currently good for on the move stuff like resturants and hotels etc, but when a new device comes and everyone has it then do you think the value of a .mobi site may have something over and above (an advantage) over normal .com's etc at least for a while??

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http://www.dvd-and-media.com/ Largest suppliers of DVD cases in the UK
http://www.talkangling.co.uk/ Busiest fishing tackle and angling chat site in the UK

Although, yes, I see a day when there is widespread availability of robust browsing capabilities on mobile phones, I do not see a day when the average web site sees a marked increase in mobile traffic. Some sites - local attractions, local services, information sites - will have such an increase. Other sites, such as comparison shopping sites, will probably be very successful (in terms of traffic) by creating mobile variants of their web sites. But the majority of sites would not get a benefit from having their sites available on mobile phones.

As an example, think of an auction web site. There will probably be a high demand for the ability to log in and view the status of auctions you are selling or bidding in from a mobile phone. However, there will probably be a much lower demand for the ability to browse the current auctions.

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The best way to learn anything, is to question everything.

Google has just announced it's entry into the cell phone market, collaborating with many manufacturers to bring a to your cellphone a mini desktop. When I heard this yesterday I immediatly started concidering that .mobi sites might start becoming much more popular. And I snagged one. If the I phone isn't enough get you to start thinking then the excess capital that Google has to spread around like toilet paper should.

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Web Geek http://www.sjvwd.com
http://www.arthurspools.com

Wige I remember a day when we used to have to talk on a phone, that was hard wired into the wall. We could only walk around as far as the cord and it was pretty limited......it would never get better than that?


10 years from now we will reminisce about the days when we actualy sat down at desks and looked into a box to access information. Man is nothing if not a conveinence freak. For me at my age the eyes are getting to the point where it won't make much sense.....but in ten years Baush and Laumb will be selling replacement eyes, so we're okay ;o)

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Web Geek http://www.sjvwd.com
http://www.arthurspools.com

If you’re in for the longer-term then Mobile, (and mobi) devices and the display of Internet Webpages is growing, (in my own opinion).

New technology could be just round the corner, (5-10 years), difficult to predict....

(at this time new domain extensions could exist to suite the new technology)

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Business Support A Computer Portal

We started a mobi but today there are too many formats to accommodate.

Then, the cell phones are becoming more and more web savvy, that is, they are starting to build in software to convert the standard websites for the cell phone formats - IFF your website is a basic configuration without the bells and whistles.

We decided to wait until more and more users catch onto this technology, and as CraigMn3 pointed out, G is beginning to push into this market. It won't be long.

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then looking up for a target to catch it with.

you can also add this line and a new style sheet to your site...

<link href="/styles-mobile.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="handheld" />

The new style sheet will specify hi-contrast colors and display the site for about 320px wide, you can also add img {display:none;} in there then if you have a single logo you want simply change that inline on the page. That will display in almost all current mobile browsers...

You don't need to create separate .wml pages.. but you still can if you like, and submit them.

I haven't gone far enough yet to figure out if I should resubmit a regular page with a handheld stylesheet to the mobile directories, I think I should but am worried about duplicate content... Anyone have a line on that ?

On the actual question regarding .mobi domain names... If you have a specific site you're launching ONLY for the mobile (handheld) market, then it would have value. If you only want your regular site to be mobile also, I don't think you'd be well served to have the content on two domains.

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Ron Boyd
website consulting (design, optimization, marketing) :: Follow Me: @orionsweb

My thoughts were along the lines of - in five years time will .mobi have an advantage over a .com - I see it possibly this way, there will come a day when things step up big time on mobiles, it must happen, so at that point maybe the technology will exist to simply convert existing sites to mobile use but someone in the mobile side of SEO is definately going to say .mobi and properly formatted sites will be given some sort of priority.... so i thought that just registering a .mobi site and getting it submitted now (however simple the site is) could possibly give weight to that site once you come to actually develop it - after all your only talking $50 or so and the benefit could be massive potentially - anyway just my thoughts.

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http://www.dvd-and-media.com/ Largest suppliers of DVD cases in the UK
http://www.talkangling.co.uk/ Busiest fishing tackle and angling chat site in the UK

Why bother? The iPhone already has a browser that displays a standard web page properly. Others are now following. People who don't have web-friendly mobile devices don't surf the internet, so it's doubtful that adding the mobi domain will make much of a difference.

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DrTandem's San Diego Web Page Design, drtandem.com

I would consider dot mobi only when you are going long term mobile only business. If it's just a mobile friendly site, don't bother to have special dot mobi name for it. Mobile search does not care is it dot mobi or not.
But with dot mobi, I could get lot of free promotion at the moment from those sites dedicated to promote mobile sites and services, like dot mobi organisation themself. They have even competitions for best mobile sites, etc. Without dot mobi name you can't participate on those.

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State of the art. Keep up with the times. I remember my grandmother showing off her new tv channel changer. It was a cord stretched across the room to her chair, she could hit forward or reverse and the channel dial would move to change the channel, it was absolutely fascinating.

If I had a website that would benifit from it I would get a .mobi url

If in a few years it's out of date so be it.

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