dotMobi

DeviceAtlas and mobiReady Updates

While the .mobi domain is the centerpiece of everything we do as a company, we offer many other services and tools to help drive the growth of mobile content. (Because without good mobile content, there's not much for the .mobi domain to do.) So to that end, on Thursday, August 27, dotMobi launched significant enhancements to both our DeviceAtlas and mobiReady product sites.

DeviceAtlas
For Device Atlas -- our market-leading, award-winning device detection database, we:

• Created DeviceAtlas "use cases" to help developers and content providers generate ideas on different ways to use DeviceAtlas
• Added a case study / testimonials section 
• Developed a new, dedicated product page with an easy-to follow matrix, including more details on our Enterprise offering 
• Redesigned the back-end for more responsive pages.  

mobiReady
Users can now post markup directly, which means users whose sites are still under development and/or which are not on a publicly accessible server can use mobiReady. And that means more sites can launch pre-tested to work with the widest possible variety of handsets,
 
Other new features include an updated interface, improved user-friendliness of mobiReady's site testing capability and the addition of HTTP response headers along with test results.

Even if you're only interested in one aspect of what dotMobi does, I hope seeing the full range of what we do helps shed a little light on the burgeoning -- but still young --  mobile Web.

dotMobi's WordPress Mobile Pack Now Live

This past week, dotMobi released a new, free product: the WordPress Mobile Pack -- a plug-in for WordPress users to automatically generate a mobile version of their WordPress site.

We've had requests for this for a long time and we're very happy that we're finally able to make it available. 

Approximately 2% of all Web sites are run on WordPress. There have been more than 4.5 million downloads of the software in the last six months alone. As you can see, the need for a WordPress mobile solution is a big one.

What does the WordPress Mobile Pack contain?:

•  Mobile switcher to detect mobile visitors and provide an appropriate experience
•  Base mobile theme for quick-and-easy XHTML-Mobile Profile compliance
•  Extended mobile themes so you can unleash your mobile creativity
•  Integration with the award-wining DeviceAtlas(TM) for world-class mobile adaptation
•  Mobile administration panel for when posts can't wait
•  Mobile ad widget to make you some money
•  Barcode widget to help users bookmark your blog

If you run a WordPress site, you'll likely find this pack worthwhile. Critics think so, too.

Full information on the WordPress Mobile Pack is on mobiForge.com.

General Compliance Update

dotMobi rolled out its Premium Name Compliance program at the beginning of September. We've been encouraged by the feedback we've received; many domain holders have reached out to us asking for advice and information on available resources. We fully recognize that this is a learning process for many, and it's our desire to work with registrants and encourage them to develop their mobile sites to the best of their ability.

In a September blog post, we stressed the difference between Premium Name Compliance and General Compliance. As a reminder, General Compliance refers to the basic content formatting requirements -- no frames, use of XHTML and no "www" -- as set out in the dotMobi Style Guide and incorporated into every domain registration agreement with .mobi registrars. When an end-user chooses to activate a .mobi domain name and put up content -- which is not in itself a requirement -- that content, whether it's a parking page or a content-rich site, should adhere to the dotMobi Style Guide.

We really ARE mobile! dotMobi Road Show starting soon.

.mobi = mobile content on your phone ... and sometimes dotMobi = mobile content in your city. Well, content about mobile, at any rate.

Based on the success we had on the road with our "Happenings" earlier this year, dotMobi is heading to San Francisco, New York and London for three mobile developer mornings and three mobile marketing afternoons.

The developer mornings will be devoted to learning to build device-aware mobile content. dotMobi's Paul Nerger has a dev.mobi blog about the developer mornings, including dates and registration information.

The three mobile marketing afternoons are designed for brands, agencies and in-house marketing teams who are investigating a mobile approach and can benefit from learning best practices, so they can get started quickly and confidently in the mobile world.

The marketing events all begin at 4 p.m. local time and last until 8 p.m. (that's including cocktails and conversation after the session) and are scheduled as following:

• San Francisco: Thursday, May 29 at the Hotel Palomar. Tina Unterlaender from AKQA Mobile will be our special guest at this event. Click here to sign up
• New York: Thursday, June 12 at the Westin Times Square. Sign up info coming soon.
• London: Thursday, June 26 at the Hospital. Sign up info coming soon.

Space for these events is limited, so please register sooner than later if you are interested. I will post updated on this blog as registrations open for the New York and London events.

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.

What a difference a year makes ...

This year in Barcelona, the Mobile World Congress -- formerly known as 3GSM -- proved to be an interesting place for seeing the acceptance and growth of the .mobi domain. So many people sought us out to ask about developing their sites, advertising their sites or to debate us about different mobile devices.

A year ago, people who stopped by asked us “What’s a .mobi?” or “Why would I want to go mobile?” or -- as happened several times -- “Can I access the web on my phone? How?”

What brought the most people to us this year was the announcement of DeviceAtlas.

dotMobi: One Year Later

First of all, hello to everyone. My first blog marks a special occasion in the life of dotMobi.

September 26 was the one-year anniversary of .mobi’s public availability. Although work started well before that date, that day was the public announcement that dotMobi was no longer a concept, idea or project. It was real. And one year later, there are 700,000 names registered with millions of pages of mobile content behind them, plus a slew of free tools for bringing content to the mobile web content like dev.mobi, ready.mobi, site.mobi and the dotMobi Web Developer Guide.  Much progress made, but much, much more to go!

Today, dotMobi’s challenge is to grow what was launched a year ago. Over the next two quarters, dotMobi will focus on growing mobile services for developers, designers and enterprises with the launch of key products like our device database and search services.

Another challenge for dotMobi is helping more and more brands bring their presence to the mobile web. Recently, we’ve seen strong brands like Wachovia, ESPN, Zagat and Disney bringing mobile properties to the .mobi domain. We’ve also seen innovative business models like MobilePropertySites.com, Zinadoo and dozens of other travel, automobile & media sites basing their services on the advantages of the .mobi domain.

I promise that there is much more to come.  This coming year is going to be an exciting one as we all help bring the mobile web to the mainstream … and I'm including every reader of this blog in that.

I know you have an interest in the success of the mobile web. If you have domains, use site.mobi to build content. Create mobile social networks with your friends using Zinadoo. If you have friends in businesses, introduce them to the benefits of the .mobi domain. Advertising works. PR works. But word of mouth will always be the most important way to reach a mass audience because it’s supported by your credibility and enthusiasm.  You have had and will have a big hand in impacting the growth of dotMobi, so thank you for your support in the past, and thank you for working beside us to build the future.

I'm already excited to think about a year from now, when we’ll be looking back at everything the dotMobi community has accomplished together over these next 12 months. I promise it will be exciting for you as well.

From Burger King to Building Mobile Sites

I came across some really comical blogs on the NamePros site during the past weeks commenting that "Edwards should be flipping burgers at Burger King" and "Edwards is that guy with the really bad red tie." I love flipping burgers on the grill, but I have to say that I do like my red tie. I love the good craic as we say here in Ireland, but I think the discussion needs to be more about how to build mobile content. You can buy all the names in the world that you want, but they are worthless without content and traffic to them. Content and traffic are important whether you are an individual, big brand, small brand or domain investor.

The big brands are doing it daily in the press. dotMobi is about helping the small and big brands alike to reach 1.6 billion internet-ready mobile phones around the world. This is where the future traffic lies for small businesses, big brands and pay-per-click sites. If you are not there today, then you are going to be late to the game in the next 12 months. I am often asked what are the minimum requirements for a dotMobi site and, more importantly, what makes a good dotMobi site.

The minimum requirements for any web site behind a mobi name are brain-dead simple. Most registrars and their tools implement these requirements today. We built the minimum mandatory rules with help from the W3C and dotMobi's investors so that consumers would get a mobile experience that works every time. You can run a Ready.mobi report to find out if your site meets the three simple rules. If you want to build a site with GOOD mobile content, then you need to do a little more work and read on past the rules below. 

The three rules are:

1.  XHTML Mobile Profile

XHTML mobile profile is simply a tag for your mobile landing page, signifying that your site does XHTML (the preferred language for mobile web browsers). It makes sense that your web site should tell the browser to select a mobile display. Mobile browsers will take on a number of behaviors, and your web site should signal what kind of behavior it wants the consumer to experience. This rule is mandatory and .mobi sites not implementing it will be turned off with due notice before the year end.

2.  No frames

The zero to nine keypad on mobile phones do not provide an easy way for a consumer to navigate around a mobile web site. Frames also tend to break mobile browsers in some cases. Hence, we have a mandatory rule that says no frames because it produces a bad mobile experience for the consumer. This rule is mandatory, and .mobi sites not implementing it will be turned off with due notice before the year end.

3.  myname.mobi must be the landing page

This is another practical rule guaranteeing consumers that they do not have to worry about what comes before the name. Was it "www" or "whatever 3rd level name"? Mobile consumers on the go do not have time to type lots of characters on a zero-to-nine key pad. dotMobi makes it simple for the mobile consumer to get to the site they want quickly and dependably. We did research on this mobile consumer behavior, by the way, and this is how we created the rule. This rule is mandatory, and .mobi sites not implementing it will be turned off with due notice before the year end.

The three rules are simple and practical, but they do not mean you will produce a mobile site with a great consumer experience. dotMobi and the investors (the guys with the real mobile web experience) have literally spent the last two years and several million dollars building information resources and tools for free to the global community. You should check out Dev.mobi today to learn about how to build a web site with a great mobile experience. 

I will summarize some of the highlights that will help you build a world class mobile site that will work on any phone or network in the world ...

.Mobi Advisory Group [MAG] - Get Involved

Dev.mobi  gets a frequent mention on this blog and I wanted to draw attention to another .mobi industry group which is rapidly gaining pace and doing great work to help build the .mobi ecosystem - the .mobi Advisory Group [MAG] .

Before I go any further, I should point out that MAG is completely independent of dotMobi - it is self-financing (MAG is a not-for-profit organization), self-organising and it sets its own agenda entirely. However, it is endorsed and accredited by dotMobi and naturally works closely with the dotMobi team.

MAG is a fantastic vehicle for dotMobi to gather feedback from the marketplace on the direction it is taking and any future plans. Members get early access to new products and play an important part in planning and development. Equally, MAG is able to pitch new ideas to dotMobi and suggest different initiatives.

MAG has a wider membership profile than the Developers Forum but like dev.mobi, MAG welcomes those who are passionate about the growth of the mobile internet and the .mobi TLD. Members include dotMobi registrars, companies involved in mobile commerce / content / advertising, web and domain developers, individuals and dotMobi investors. MAG has also reached out to  industry associations such as the CWTA  and  the MMA  to form global alliances.

MAG's various taskforces have been looking at issues such as mobile advertising, browsing, commerce, mobile email, PPC and mobile internet in developing countres. I believe domain compliance is on its agenda for the coming months as is illegal content / mobile web and mobile search.

I would encourage those of you who take an active interest in dotMobi and its activities to get involved in MAG. Further information on how to join is available on the MAG web-site.

sex.mobi To Go On Sale, And More

Have you seen the zagat.mobi or AAA.mobi going live this week? Weather.mobi's service is really cool and a testament to a major brand making a decision between m.myname.com (or myname.com/mobile or mobile.myname.com) and myname.mobi.

We are poised to break 700,000 names under management very soon. More significantly, both small and big brands are putting their content live on a daily basis. Check our the showcase page to see examples and case studies. 

Also, have you checked out the mobile site builder which recently went live with Network Solutions' BuildMyMobi.com?  Registrars everywhere are embracing the mobile hosting and content creation opportunity in a big way for the coming year.  Hopefully, your company will not miss out.

More after the jump...