I have a question regarding the popularity of the .mobi TLD. I happened to come across various domain auction and domain selling forums and was surprised to know that premium domain names are being sold for very cheap rates. If the same names would have been in .com or .net TLDs, the same would be valued in thousands of dollars and some even millions of dollars. However, in the case of .mobi the situation is not so. Also, the number of .mobi domains registered is also very less. What could be the reason? Is it lack of awareness or the TLD itself is not popular?

Its deisgned for mobile devices but is harder to type .com

Its deisgned for mobile devices but is harder to type .com

Do you mean since it is designed for mobile devices, it is not very popular or because it is not .com?

Yes it is targeted and created for mobile devices, so unless your site is created to run on mobile devices specifically .com is a more popular choice. I'd say that since there still aren't many sites specifically written to run on mobile devices there isn't a great need for the .mobi tld, thus it not being so popular.

Indeed it was created for mobile devices. The problem is that these days and with current standards, the website can be displayed on the fly for specific device. Say for instance, go to CNN in Firefox on PC, and go to CNN on some Android phone. You get redirected to mobile version.

How is .mobi directly related to applications developed to run on mobile devices? The .mobi is a TLD, a domain name extension and not a development tool. Is it also because the registry is not putting efforts to promote .mobi TLD?

How is .mobi directly related to applications developed to run on mobile devices? The .mobi is a TLD, a domain name extension and not a development tool. Is it also because the registry is not putting efforts to promote .mobi TLD?

I suppose the main problem is memorability. If domain name extension is easy to remember it is being used.

It also does not do very well with the search engines. They still prefer .com. .net and .org domains.

I suspect the reason is that there's so many choices of TLDs nowadays. You could have a mobile site that's a .com, .net, etc. Doesn't necessarily have to be .mobi.

How is .mobi directly related to applications developed to run on mobile devices? The .mobi is a TLD, a domain name extension and not a development tool. Is it also because the registry is not putting efforts to promote .mobi TLD?

For instance, I have a website called mydomain.mobi.
On some mobile devices, i just need to enter mydomain on the mobile web browser.

I'm some time in the business and to be hones I do not see those around..

Total .mobi domains registered under Godaddy last week are 3791 which is almost 1% of the total .com domains registered during the same period. Public Domain Registry aka DirectI has registered 124 .mobi domains in the same period. Total .mobi domains registered in last one day is 608 while total .com domains registered in last one day is 27,322. In fact, the number of .mobi domains registered in the last one day is more than .biz domains registered during the same period and is close to the number of .us domains registered during the same period. I am hopeful that .mobi should soon pick up if proper awareness is created. It seems to me that the lack of awareness is killing .mobi.

On the 11th of Februari of this year, Afilias acquired mTLD, which is the registry operator for .mobi

http://www.afilias.info/mobi+acquisition

Perhaps they will put some new efforts in building a new proposition for .mobi. The mobile devices are supporting normal websites more and more, so the proposition of mobile sites has become a bit outdated. However, with nearly one million registrations, I would say it's a pretty succesfull TLD (compared to other fairly new TLD's and taking into account their specific proposition).

Let's hope for the best.

Maybe Afilias can run promos for .mobi so that more and more people register .mobi domains like it has happened with .info TLD.

How is .mobi directly related to applications developed to run on mobile devices? The .mobi is a TLD, a domain name extension and not a development tool. Is it also because the registry is not putting efforts to promote .mobi TLD?


The thing is though is they have rules about the site/s you can create.

http://mobiforge.com/starting/story/making-your-mobi-domain-compliant

The .mobi domain is unlike all other domains in that it has a set of rules that web site owners must follow....

It's just not as cool as .com :P

well... i got fraudsters.mobi for $70 .. LOL !!!

well... i got fraudsters.mobi for $70 .. LOL !!!
And what are you planning to do with a site named that? :evilb:

And what are you planning to do with a site named that? :evilb:

lol... dunno .. maybe will put names of all the fraudsters around the world or something... lol !!
i bought it as found it a good one word domain name...

am looking to sale it off soon ...

The .mobi sTLD was highly speculated when it was launched. As a result many of the domains registered were never used. Another part of the .mobi registrations were brand protection - companies registering their domain across a number of new TLDs. The .mobi is specifically targeted at mobile devices. It is not going to compete with .com or with any ccTLD in the short term. However it is still growing as a TLD and it will take a few years to develop.

Regards...jmcc

You don't need multiple domains to offer a "mobile" view. You just create an m.yourdomain.com subdomain and get done with it. User-agent identification also helps.

If all you have is one company/product/brand, you certainly would rather maintain one domain than multiple domains. Maintaining several domains is a liability.

1. it's expensive to keep registered, so domain investor aren't interested
2. it's not good to use for email
3. its main purpose is for a mobile version of an existing site, or a site designed specially for mobiles (and therefore with limited audience, or for sites related to mobile info, products, etc

like the .tel, it's restrictive and expensive, nobody will register one to keep it on hold, ppl only have a .mobi when they have a site to run on it, and a profitable site that can pay its cost, so the demand is very low, and we don't have demand...

How is .mobi directly related to applications developed to run on mobile devices? The .mobi is a TLD, a domain name extension and not a development tool.

of course, it's just a domain, all it does is resolve names into IPs

but for marcketing purposes, it's meant for sites developed for mobiles

but... as other ppl pointed out, most sites prefere to keep a unique domain (for it being easier to memorize), and redirect to mobile site when proper user-agents are detected

and since they prefere to keep a unique domain, it's better to use m.domain.com, because it keeps the main domain and is free

also, it's possible to develop normal sites meant to normal browsers, following Web Standards, that also look good in mobiles

to own it completely, google.mobi redirects to www.google.com/mobile/, which suggests using m.google.com in those devices

I think at the time TLDs were less plentiful .mobi could have had a chance. But it seems almost every country offers TLDs now and there doesn't appear to be any problem getting a good domain name, especially as they expire...

.com has ruled the domain market for years and people get accustom to this domain. We can say that .mobi is still new. I believe that for the next few years .mobi will be as popular as other existing TLDs.

Do you mean since it is designed for mobile devices, it is not very popular or because it is not .com?

Yes, they are only designed for mobile browsing and they are not so popular because most of the web owners likes to promote it over internet which is accessible through desktop.

Also, we only use our mobile devices on the time when there is some urgency or need to check our emails.

Today's time, when laptop are no handy and do have huge backup, so why would people surf through their mobile?? :cool:

In my opinion, .mobi doesn't go very well compared to others

.Mobi sites are specially optimized for browsing the mobile device through the internet. However the .com and .org domain are most popular through worldwide.

.MOBI was introduced to help the browsing via your mobile phone. To have a .MOBI domains and actually use it, you need to comply to certain style-sheets.

These style-sheets basically improve usability on your mobile phone. E.g. no more scrolling from left to right, only up an down, ...etc.

With the iphone being introduced mobile usage has changed tremendously over the past 2 years. Look how many phones now use "touch". Along with that the browser capability changed as well, making internet browsing through your mobile phone much easier and more comfortable.

if you are a business and you could still use your .com on a mobile phone, why would you want to buy a mobi?

because it's 4 letters. had it been .mob i would probably by a few dozens.

.com has ruled the domain market for years and people get accustom to this domain. We can say that .mobi is still new. I believe that for the next few years .mobi will be as popular as other existing TLDs.

Yup. If all the .com domains are snapped up and the prices ramp up, maybe people will go for .mobi

Maybe it will happen in a few years time and it will take a few popular mobi sites to get the ball rolling.

There are much shorter and better looking TLD's. .mobi is long and not catchy.