dotMobi

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.

Still not convinced that 2007 is "The Year of the Mobile Web"?

Any top-level domain is only as good as the sites that use it.

.mobi is no different. We're a very young domain registry, and we've made amazing progress with the domain uptake. But, like many registries, a large part of our mission is to stimulate the growth of content.

But what adds to dotMobi's responsibility in particular, I think, is an awareness that .mobi sites are, in a way, uniquely representative of a whole new medium: the mobile web.

That's certainly we take that responsibility very seriously. Our developer community, tools, publications and resources are all designed to help grow the mobile web. Over on http://dev.mobi, we service many thousands of signed-up mobile developers and their needs every day, even those that are not (yet! :-) ) running their sites on .mobi domains.

As a result I feel fairly confident that our domain uptake, the numbers of live sites - not to mention the success of the dev.mobi community itself - are valuable barometers for the sector as a whole.

So I thought I'd share some interesting statistics with you.

Just one of the things that we measure here at dotMobi is how .mobi sites are being picked up by search engines. That (at least in relative terms) shows us how fast content is going live, and how actively search providers' crawlers are indexing it.

You can tracking page index size on Google quite easily. The trick is the "site:" syntax, and the fact that the approximate number of matching pages is shown in the top right hand corner of the results. Enter "site:.mobi" into Google and you will see what I mean.

This is presented as a count of pages, not sites or domains. We've been recording this figure regularly for a selection of top-level domains since December. Although I have no way of knowing how accurate they are as absolute figures, they seem to be a fair measure of relative growth.

(Of course they fall sometimes too: presumably the removal of dead or poor sites from the index. But taking a ratcheted monthly peak accounts for that. The highest .mobi result count in July was just over 3 million pages.)

Anyway, normalise to December, plot the percentage growth for each top-level domain, and out comes...

Whoah! Well, I guess we were starting from a fairly low base... our top-level domain was only a few months old then. But nevertheless, the growth curve is astonishing. We have more than ten times as many pages being indexed today than we did back at the start of the year.

As proof of our confidence in this year's growth of the mobile web, and the .mobi domain in particular, this is fabulous.

Of course these figures aren't about us. They're all thanks to the hundreds of thousands of domain holders and site owners out there who are demonstrably living the mobile dream.

These individuals and organisations are already out there, realising the medium's opportunities, overcoming its challenges, and prototyping the future. Basically bootstrapping what is clearly now the web's inevitable evolution.

And, as you can see, they're doing it right now. Are you?

Do the latest search deals signal the begining of the end for the "walled gardens"?

As you know, in this blog, I have been following the developments in the Mobile Search and advertising space, since they are the leading indicators of when and how the Mobile Internet itself will develop.

And there is no lack of news in this arena.  According to a recent story in Financial Times the Mobile search players Google and Microsoft are in a race to sign up operators to their own brand of search.  Even more notably according to MarketWatch Google has expanded its mobile advertising to 8 more countries:

Google began testing text-only advertisements sent to cell phones earlier this year in the United States, as well as Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. As of Wednesday, Google said that it has added China, the world's largest cell-phone market, as well as Australia, France, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Google began testing text-only advertisements sent to cell phones earlier this year in the United States, as well as Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. As of Wednesday, Google said that it has added China, the world's largest cell-phone market, as well as Australia, France, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

Christian Salbaing, managing director of European telecommunications at 3 Group (Hutchison Whampoa's  chose Google for the 3Mobile network) said:

“It’s another key step for 3 in delivering a fully mobile internet,” said Christian Salbaing, managing director of European telecommunications at 3 Group. “The mobile internet has now developed to such a degree that we can now leave the ‘walled garden’ behind and let our customers access and enjoy the very best of what the converged internet and media worlds can offer.”

(Google, Microsoft and Hutchison are investors in dotMobi.)

For all those who are watching the leading indicators for the development of an open, content-rich, mobile Internet, this is good news. Specifically, that means:

1. Operators have to open up the  walled gardens to allow more content.  This is good news to all content providers who would like to lower their economic barrier to entry in the mobile media.
2. I firmly believe the bottom-line to a good mobile search is the quality of the results. Is it relevant? Is it optimized for your phone? That depends on not only the abundance of content but also mobile optimized content.
3. ...and finally, underpinning all of this is mobile advertising which offers to drive traffic to content providers and provide a better ROI.

All this harks back to the four questions content providers need to ask when developing their site (regardless of whether is optimized for PC or mobile):

1. What do I need to build to service my customers? If you need to consider mobile as a channel, then determine what elements of your site are needed by your customers on the go
2. How do  build it? Look to the W3C based dotMobi guidelines and resources in http://dev.mobi
3. How will my customers find me? You have to be concerned with how you will be found not only by your customers who want to know your Mobile optimized address, but also by the Mobile search engines and the developments in mobile advertising.
4. And how will I justify this cost? In the years to come this will eventually be a competitive necessity.  But for now, this may be the competitive edge of the early adopters.

What Do All The Mobile Search Deals Indicate?

There has been a lot of stories lately in the press about mobile search, or more specifically about the deals being done by operators and handset manufacturers such as Nokia around mobile search. 

Why is this an important trend that we have to pay attention to?  well for one, the Mobile Internet seems to be evolving around a Mobile Search application rather than a browsing one and if you think about it it makes perfect sense.  When out and about with only your mobile and likely little time, you are more apt to want to search for specific info rather than simply browse (which is what we do when we have more time, cheap connectivity and a large screen). 

Note this: "Mobile Search, according to Nokia, allows users to find search results more quickly than using a wireless browser and discover the web pages directly, since in many cases search will be accessible directly from the menu screen.

Also note that a good search experience hinges on, above all things, a good results page.  What does that mean?  Well for one it has to be optimized for mobile  and it has to be contextually relevant.  Incidentally, these are all the elements which we at dotMobi have been concerned with.  The search companies need a database of mobile optimized content to search on and allow the users to easily "discover".  Well, that also happens to be what dotMobi provides.

I am fascinated by the evolution of search and advertising in mobile.  I do believe the trends also show that there will be an intersection of both in mobile. 

Here is the logic: Thoughtful advertising -- meaning respectful of users' privacy, un-intrusive, and relevant -- will subsidize good content (meaning well formatted and optimized for mobile).  Plentiful content in turn will enable a better mobile search experience since after all this part depends on the search results pages(s). 

I for one am watching the trends and the deals among the big players to see if I am right.

Search And Advertising, Coming Soon To A Mobile Near You?

There has been a lot of talk recently about mobile advertising and search.  A recent one was this article in Red Herring about the potential size of the market: up to $113 billion in the next five years. 

The article makes two key points, both of which I have stressed in recent posts.  First: the likelihood that content will be subsidized by advertising and that, in doing so, ads will be more palatable (and possibly targeted) to mobile phone users. They cite a recent survey by conducted by Informa:

Out of 630 mobile consumers, 40 percent stated they are willing to receive advertising content when they watch mobile TV and video, 35 percent are willing to view ads when playing games, and 27 percent are willing to receive ads to listen to music, in exchange for reduced content costs.

The other finding? "Text messages were the most unsavory way for consumers to receive ads. "

This second point is key, as many of what is considered "mobile advertising" today is text-based.  That is not to say it doesn't serve a purpose, but that its time is limited. 

So what next?  How would you want to serve an ad so that it is relevant (context sensitive and time and location sensitive.)  How about typing with search?

Consider the latest moves by Google (one of the dotMobi investors) to bring Adwords to the mobile search experience.  Consider this post by the folks at NLC.  I completely agree.  As mobile users we do not "browse" so much as search for quick, timely bits of info. 

Now what if, as a search result, you were shown an ad leading you to a page of content? (Assume for now that the content developers will take into account your limitations and not force a page designed for a PC down to your small screen -- this is the area we are working on).  Assume further that this page of content had highly desirable info that took into account your location, the time of day and your needs, say a nearby French restaurant open for dinner with an offer for you to call in and make a reservation!   

As I have said before, I do not know if the mobile advertising market will in fact be $113 billion in three years.  Or if that amount is a displacement of traditional expenditures on ads, now simply placed on a new medium.  I do know the trends are pointing the right way, and I am increasingly convinced that mobile search and ads (not text-based but actual content served up) will be the trend to watch.

As such, I am curious how companies like NLC will advise their customers on mobile search and advertising.

Are we there yet?...Part II

Recently, I posted about the number of observations (in press as well as ordinary posts) that ask the question, "Is the Mobile Internet around the corner already?"

If you follow this stuff as I do, there are some good indicators to watch. 

1. The first is the lure of the mobile Internet (and subsequent ability to be able to communicate directly to you and me, in a useful and effective way (we hope- rather than spam).  See recent story about Nokia teaming up with Yahoo Search
2. The second is the moves by the search engine companies who see the virgin territory of the mobile Internet as the prime growth driver. After all, we do not expect people to "browse" content while on the go, so much as search for info.  So note this interesting post by Brian White about Google unveiling Adwords for mobile. Note what he says "The good news is that these ads will be like Google's normal text ads -- very unobtrusive and relevant to the search you're performing."   The key being that the ads much like content have to be relevant and tailored to mobile.  Sounds like what we have been saying all along about tailoring content so it works for mobile.

We may not be there yet, but we are around the corner. 

TBL And "Why dotMobi?"

Well... Paul Knag thinks dotMobi is a scam. We've addressed much of those claims before (and even dedicated a section to it), so we can agree to disagree here.

Citing this article, though, Knag points out a longstanding criticism of dotMobi from Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, which we've never addressed here.

Tim Berners-Lee’s criticism was that existing content should be smart enough to recognize device being used and that we should not fragment the web into mainstream content and content for small screens.

In an ideal world, the client-side device type would direct the type of page served, but that is not how things have evolved.

The fact is the majority of the 80 plus million sites across the web do not work well on mobile devices and do not detect device type before redirecting you. So, mobile operators and service providers (as major competitors) formed dotMobi to address the need for a usable and reliable mobile content.

The data also shows that mobile users look for different kinds of information from their mobile devices than on a PC. This is why dotMobi suggests a site with mobile-relevant but lighter-weight content. A registrant can put up whatever content they like; we only mandate that it comply with three simple rules to work well on mobile devices -- XHTML, no frames, and no "www". The unique ability dotMobi has to enforce those rules, per our contract with ICANN, makes it effective in a way no other TLD is.

dotMobi as a new TLD provides a service-marked mobile internet. And that is based on solid open industry standards, not marketing hype.

Mobile-Only Domain Shows Its True Color: Helping the Consumer

Carlo over at TechDirt makes a few inaccurate statements about dotMobi in this week's post.  One is entitled to his opinion, of course, but the facts do need to be set straight about dotMobi. 

First, there's the notion that dotMobi is forcing content owners to adhere to rules that could do more harm that good.

dotMobi's "rules" were created in partnership with the W3C's Mobile Web Initiative.  dotMobi is simply making it mandatory that content owners follow the specifications created by the W3C.  dotMobi, more importantly, provides training, documentation, software developer tools for free to the developer community to illustrate proper mobile content development.  dotMobi is the only internet address recommends to content owners that the open standards created by the W3C are the way to build a better mobile experience.  The end result is that the consumer will most likely have a predicatable experience on their mobile device. 

ALso, dotMobi has never said that other Internet addresses will not or should not be mobile-friendly -- another misconception that presumes mutual exclusivity where none exists.  We have only accurately stated that dotMobi provides a consistent experience the consumer on the mobile device that other Internet addresses cannot enforce and do not have as their charter.  In that sense, dotMobi is just as much a service mark as it is a TLD. Try your favorite dot-whatever your your mobile -- and not a high end smart phone -- and see what your mobile experience is for yourself.  Then, try names like bmw.mobi, amf.mobi, weather.mobi, google.mobi, and so on.  You will have a better experience.

The main thrust Carlo's post, though, is the idea that dotMobi's premium names are nothing more than money-grab.

Here's the story: dotMobi held back around 5,000 commonly used words and phrases.  These 5,000 words and phrases will be allocated on an equitable and objective basis either by request for proposal or auction in the coming months.  Our goal is to make sure that words like weather.mobi, search.mobi, travel.mobi, and many others get into the hands of content owners who will actually build a weather, search, or travel application.  If dotMobi did not hold back this small list, then the names would be purchased and held by parties who would only sell them on the aftermarket. 

If we were going for the so-called "money grab," then dotMobi would have held back the hundreds of thousands of well-known commonly used words and phrases.

It seems that there's a bit of education that needs to go on in the domainer space. Domainers are currently driving growth in dot-com today, owning about 25% of the dot-com names for example.  dotMobi has worked to create a more equitable process for allocating dotMobi names as we go live.

How Many Payment Systems Are Needed For Mobile Content?

It absolutely makes no sense that only a few closed payment systems exist for mobile content providers today. The lack of multiple mobile payment options is having a deading effect on the growth of mobile content. 

Wheter I am a businessman in the Internet or offline world, I simply pick the local bank that gives me the best rates for my merchant account.  Then, my ecommerce software or point-of-sale system integrates my preferred payment provider into my business. 

It will be very important in the coming year to look for new and open developments in the arena of mobile payments.  Today, the few closed systems are retarding the growth of mobile content.  The coming entrance of Paypal and other solutions will be a welcome entrance into the world of mobile payments.

The Problem With Mobile?

I think Seth Godin makes an interesting point here.  The mobile industry today has many parallels to the online and wireline industries in the late 1990's.  You have millions of mobile subscribers using hand picked mobile sites and messaging services through their local carrier.  You cannot ignore these market facts. 

However, you also have the leading Internet companies in the world developing mobile services for the consumer that solve real problems on the mobile phone.  Try Google Mobile Maps and you will be a believer.  Try Microsoft Mobile or Google Mobile search services, then you may start using your mobile more than your PC.  Try some of the new services from the carriers and they are getting better by the month.  The short story is that the whole Internet industry is at work building new innovative services for the mobile internet experience.

Other reactions to Godin's post:

• Russell Buckley, MobHappy
  
• Josh Kenzer, Relationship Marketing Blog
• Scott Gentzen, ScottAndMargo.Net
  

New startup companies will deliver innovative applications for mobiles, but you cannot ignore the creativity at work right now around the world.

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