Today domain registrars are pushing out a new TLD, and of course everyone will flock to protect their brand. But, will it make any real difference? The idea behind .mobi The idea behind .mobi is that people using their wireless devices will have a TLD dedicated to wireless. But what does that really mean? Many sites already offer their sites in a wireless format. The most common method is to just use un-stylized text to render the site in an easy to read fashion. This is the most effective both in cost for the company, and in speed for the user. But why a separate domain? What would be another option?

What Options are they? One option that may actually become a standard is a universally agreed upon sub-domain. Instead of purchasing a .mobi address you would use something like mobi.site.com, or possibly site.com/mobi. .mobi as an extension could be agreed upon without it being a TLD. So, will the .mobi extension be valuable? I would say it’s a good idea to buy just to be safe, and of course use it for your wireless version of your site. But I doubt that the standard that’s agreed upon for how to serve content to a mobile device will involve purchasing a new domain. What if you miss out and now someone else has your domain? How will users know if they can get to your wireless site through the .mobi address. The real test will be to see how the wireless browsers and phone manufacturers, and companies like Google handle this.

.mobi in search A few search companies tout mobile search as the next best thing. It’s really just smoke and mirrors on their part right now. Mobile search will depend greatly on how mobile devices handle websites, and no one knows for certain yet which standard will stick. But obviously Google and other search engines will want to know if your site is mobile compatible. For that you should make a wireless version of your site, using just text, and then submit to Google’s mobile sitemap service. This will let them know you have a mobile site, and should help you come up in searches done through their mobile search service. As API’s and CSS become more standardized, and wireless devices become better equipped, your mobile site will be a natural extension of your main site. So maintenance should be easy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 2:16 pmand is filed under Internet Marketing(t) , Web Development(t) , Search Engine Marketing(t) . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.