dotMobi

No Mistaking It

You've been hearing us talk about "dotMobi Thinking" for months now. The ideas behind good mobile web sites are simple but the execution isn't always so easy. Many of us are still thinking of mobile web sites as small versions of their PC-counterparts. That's simply the wrong approach. We've reviewed this and other pitfalls in mobile web marketing to produce a new, free eBook called Ten Mistakes in Mobile Web Marketing.

In addition to highlighting some traps to avoid, we've shared great examples of best site practices from some of the mobile web's biggest brands including Bank of America, Smirnoff, Virgin Atlantic, BMW and Jaguar. Keep your eyes out for more from us on that on mobiThinking.com because we're just getting started. You can stay up to date by joining our mobiThinking email list.

A new era of easy mobilization is coming

In case you haven't seen the press release, today dotMobi announced that it has acquired the IP assets of Mowser, which is a content adaptation engine created by two Bay Area mobile pioneers, Russell Beattie and Mike Rowehl.

Everyone in dotMobi is very excited because having access to this technology will give us ways to let owners of existing PC-based sites quickly and easily utilize those existing assets to create .mobi-compliant sites designed specifically for the needs of mobile web users.

One question I've already heard is, "But won't having a tool that can convert a PC site to a mobile one mean there's no need for a .mobi domain?"

Hertz doesn't think so. Hilton doesn't think so. Amtrak doesn't think so. 1-800-Flowers doesn't think so. And I certainly don't think so.

Those brands (among many others) use similar tools to create .mobi web sites that address the needs of on-the-go users. They've thought about the mobile context and want to assure their users that their sites will work on a mobile phone and that they won't encounter a frustrating desktop PC site (poorly) transferred to a phone.

That's one reason I think that bringing user-controlled content adaptation to "the masses" will be a significant accelerator for .mobi domain usage.

Another reason is that I don’t think businesses will want to hide their mobile sites. Even with all the cool technology we have, it can take a bit of effort to think through and create a great mobile site.

The Nielsen top ten web mobile sites use multiple URL conventions, but .mobi is the one most frequently used to ensure that their sites can be found because brand.mobi is the most easily guessable convention.

So welcome to a new age of easy mobilization ... and more .mobi domains than ever.

A big day for dotMobi R&D

Last Wednesday marked a milestone for dotMobi's R&D team.

After crawling 100 million domains, running the http://ready.mobi report more than 80 million times and running 22,000 tests of the service in April, the team announced that find.mobi is ready for public scrutiny.

One thing to keep in mind is that find.mobi only displays results on content that wil work on a mobile phone. Since the mobile web is still young, some searches won't return many results. As one of the R&D team members put it, "If you're looking for information on llama farming in Ecuador, the mobile web still doesn't have answers; but for common, day-to-day information, there's a good chance you'll find something."

By the way, find.mobi displays all mobile-ready sites, not just .mobi ones; however, it certainly can the site crawler's job easier with a .mobi domain and can help it get into the search engine faster.

If you want to try find.mobi yourself, break out your mobile and try some of the following searches:

• Search for brands that have gone mobile: BusinessWeek, BMW, ESPN, etc.
• Use keywords to find mobile versions of your favorite sites: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, BBC, etc.
• If you're travelling, try entering your flight number -- like aa100 or ei153 -- and find.mobi will tell you departure/arrival times, terminal number, etc.
• find.mobi does stock quotes, too. Just enter any NYSE/NASDAQ ticker symbol (e.g. aapl, goog, msft, etc.)
• Find.mobi can convert currencies. Try any of the following formats using any standard 3-letter currency codes: usd, "usd gbp," gbp, "100 cny usd," "convert 10 dollar in euro," "$10 EUR,"  etc. In each case, find.mobi will convert to USD & EUR if no other currency is mentioned, or to any other currency you specify (e.g., "10 cny gbp" converts 10 Chinese RMBs to UK pounds, using the latest rate).

In our press release on this, Paul Nerger, dotMobi's Vice President of Advanced Services and Applications, said, "find.mobi was built to serve as an example to the search industry to change the way that it should think about search when applied to mobile."

I hope you find it as compelling -- and as useful -- as I have. It's the start page on both of my mobiles and has quickly become indispensible. I'm willing to bet you're quickly going to think the same thing, too.

Left to Your Own Devices ...

... is the name of a free webinar that the dotMobi Advisory Group is hosting on 6 May 2008.

The webinar, subtitled,"Building Device Aware Content - new tools to simplify the process and increase your business," will be presented by Paul Nerger, Vice President of Advanced Services and Applications at dotMobi.I know that many followers of this blog have heard about DeviceAtlas, the dotMobi device database, but many be curious to learn more about it. If so, this will definitely be a good session to attend (and as I mentioned above, it's free).

Date:

• Tuesday, 6 May 2008

Time:

• 07:00 am PDT (USA, Canada – Pacific Coast)
• 10.00 am EDT (USA, Canada - Eastern Time)
• 15.00 pm UTC (United Kingdom, Ireland)
• 16.00 pm CET (Norway, Italy, Sweden, Germany, France)
• 17.00 pm EET (Finland)
• 19.30 pm IST (India)

To register for the session, please send an email to Wendy Holloway with your name, job title and an indication that you wish to attend. Once you have registered, she will send you details on how to join the presentation.

dotMobi goes to Disneyland!

We're getting ready to attend our fifth T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference which will take place 20-24 May in Orlando, Florida. At this event, dotMobi will make 16 of its valuable premium names available as part of the Moniker-sponsored auction (including a live auction segment on 23 May). The selection of generics for this auction is bound to attract a lot of attention: airlines.mobi, boats.mobi, company.mobi, computers.mobi, drugs.mobi, escort.mobi, forsale.mobi, films.mobi, men.mobi, mortgage.mobi, religion.mobi, records.mobi, ringtone.mobi, sales.mobi, show.mobi and strip.mobi.

dotMobi followers know the drill as regards content requirements attached to these premium names -- sites should initially consist of a dotMobi compliant parking page with a live web site containing relevant content to follow within a six-month period. In case you don't, we covered the basics in our auction press release this Monday past.

Anyone interested in participating in the auction should contact the event organizer for details on how to register. It is not necessary to attend the auction in person to bid ... but if anyone is planning to make the trip, be sure to look us up when you're there!

Webbys time again! Show your support for .mobi ...

Has it been a year already? The Webbys Awards are here again.

The Webbys are the Internet world's equivalent of the Oscars and they always attract a high caliber of entries. There are many categories, and many ways to award winners. There is a set of nominees which are voted on by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and that same set is also voted on by "the Public" via the People's Voice Awards.

Then are Honorees; these are runners up of merit who receive a certificate but aren't nominees.

2007 was the first year of awards for mobile web sites; .mobi sites made a small presence that year. But in 2008, there are quite a few .mobis scattered in there.

And now through May 1, 2008, you can show your support for .mobi by voting for:

"Radical Media for iPhone" in the Entertainment category and for ZAGAT.mobi in the Listings & Updates category.

I'd also like to send big congratulations to the following .mobi Honorees:

• High School Musical 2
• CommNexus San Diego Mobile
• http://peroniitaly.mobi
• moko.mobi

But there's always a downside ...

How small businesses are thinking really big

In case you didn't get the memo, April 21-25 is National Small Business Week in the U.S., sponsored by the Small Business Association. And while it's true that big brands with big budgets are most visibly promoting how they're using "dotMobi thinking," increasingly big numbers of small businesses are showing leadership in bringing innovative ideas to the mobile web. 

As I heard one panelist describe it at ad:tech last week, the mobile Internet is the "connective tissue" of our technology-driven and busy lives -- keeping us in tune with with the vital functions we need to thrive both personally and professionally. It's no wonder it's forecasted half the world's mobile phone subscribers will be browsing the web in just three years (Informa 2007) ... and 85% of iPhone users already do so. Now is the time for any business owner or marketer to seize the day.

The best mobile web sites acknowledge that we want utility -- usefulness -- out of our mobile web experiences that bring convenience to how we manage our day-to-day lives. Small conveniences immediately translate to customer satisfaction, and that means increased loyalty, and deeper & richer customer relationships. We all know it's far more efficient to keep a customer than to acquire a new one. And in this economic climate, retention needs to be foremost in any marketer's mind -- especially for small businesses who need to be even more judicious with their marketing spend.

And many small businesses are using "dotmobi thinking" to deliver satisfaction to their customers by providing utility - in simple and small ways that just make sense. For example, Heritage Texas Properties in Houston offers a mobile web site for out-and-about prospective property buyers. Accessing their site from your mobile device, you can view Houston listings, get contact information for any of their offices or agents, review local city information like news, weather and dining, and even calculate your estimated mortgage using their mobile-friendly calculator. When someone is in a car and viewing property, these kinds of simple features and useful applications really deliver.

Restaurants are also making small steps towards delivering great experiences. Nottingham's Restaurant & Tavern in popular ski resort Big Bear Lake, California uses their mobile web site to offer hours of operation, the menu, directions from local areas, a calendar of upcoming musical events and a quick link to call them; after all, a phone makes calls, too.  Nottingham's has obviously thought about what their customers want to access while in a boat on the lake, on the chair lift or strolling through town. The content is straightforward, but it's sure to result in lasting relationships with customers.

Both sites also use some best practices from both a technical and marketing perspective. First, they each score a perfect 5 out of 5 on http://ready.mobi for mobile performance, simply meaning the sites will work well on most phones. Second, they each advertise their respective.mobi sites on their desktop web sites! After all, how are your customers going to know you have a mobile web site if you don't tell them? It's important to differentiate yourself as a small business and show you provide this added convenience.

If you have a small business and are ready to establish a mobile web site, I have five tips to get you started:

Super Happenings

Toronto was the stage for out latest Happening; since it's a regional center of activity for mobile, we had received many requests to have one there.

So on an unusually warm and gorgeous weekday evening a couple of weeks ago, my colleague Chris Campbell and I were delighted to meet and network with mobile developers, marketers, bloggers, registrars and dotMobi Premium Name domainers and developers from the Toronto metro area. Everyone in attendance was able to introduce themselves and tell the entire group a little bit about what they do in the mobile space. We heard from domainers about what is going on with their sites like ringtones.mobi, price.mobi, scottsdalespas.mobi, roses.mobi; and a quite a few others, too.

We heard what Canadian companies like ooober, jambomobile, Carlson Marketing Canada and Mustard Seed eCommerce are doing with mobile right now. Beginners were networking with more advanced types. Developers were chatting with domainers. Marketers were talking with developers. And of course we spoke about our latest activities, such as what we've done with our DeviceAtlas.

As we heard at previous Happenings, several in attendance said that they are interested in attending more of what I'll call a "Super Happening" for now.

dotMobi Happenings: More happening.

Our first two Happenings -- held in Los Angeles and La Jolla, CA a couple of weeks ago -- were a hit. We enjoyed meeting domainers and others with keen interest in dotMobi and sharing information and ideas. I noticed great chemistry between various domainers and those with interest in development partnerships who were meeting each other for the first time. The energy and ideas that came from these Happenings was powerful, and we learned a few things from meeting dotMobi enthusiasts face to face in an informal setting.

One thing we learned from some is a desire to learn more about mobile development tools and resources, monetization strategies and ways to partner with others with experience in mobile who have the human and/or financial capital and desire to work with someone with a great name portfolio. To that end, we intend to structure future Happenings to address this feedback, and we will continue to refine our Happenings as we gather additional great ideas from the community. And speaking of more of them, our next two Happenings are in:

• Toronto, ON - Wed., April 9th at 7 PM
• Boca Raton, FL - Mon., April 28th at 7 PM

Seating is limited and attendance is limited to those with invitations that will specify the location and other particulars.

Request an invitation. (Please indicate your full name and desired Happening city.)

Stay tuned for details on Happenings planned for New York, Atlanta and various other spots around the world in the coming months.

dotMobi Happenings are free, casual, very conversational and always at a cool place. It’s your opportunity to meet dotMobi executives and speak freely about what’s on your mind and what’s on ours. And of course it’s a great way to network and meet others who are interested in dotMobi. We hope to see you at one of them!

.mobi sites = iPhone web apps = sites for all phones

With Steve Jobs' recent software announcements that will bring the iPhone into direct competition with the Blackberry, I think it's time to give a shout-out to some of the existing .mobi iPhone web apps that are currently featured by Apple.

By this point, everyone likely knows that ZAGAT.mobi is a featured web app for the iPhone as well as being a star of an iPhone commercial.

But there are several others, including marine.mobi (marine weather), mywx.mobi (local weather), kanada.mobi (a mobile travel guide for Canada), suedafrika.mobi (South Africa travel guide), iSchools.mobi (directory of more than 135,000 schools and colleges in the USA) and iTeams.mobi (mobile sports web sites).

What I really like, though, is that -- if you're a developer -- building a great .mobi site means you're also building a great iPhone web app. (And great .mobi sites will work on all phones, not just iPhones.) If you're building cool .mobi sites, you can submit them for consideration as web apps to Apple. And you can use DeviceAtlas to be sure your site works well on the widest number of phones.

As dotMobi predicted when it launched, the iPhone has accelerated interest in the possibilities of the mobile web. A recent statistic noted that 70% of US mobile web browsing traffic is coming directly from iPhones.

If you're a developer, that's a hunk of traffic you'd like coming to your .mobi.

And if you're a user, you'll likely agree that a .mobi is still an optimal experience for the iPhone. While I think it's technically cool that I can shrink and resize standard PC-based web pages on an iPhone or an iPod Touch, it doesn't make the getting of information particularly easy. (Yet another reason why I'm not just a dotMobi employee, I'm a .mobi fan.)