My "Relentless Attacks" on Unique Extensions

I was looking in my trackbacks today and saw a trackback from a blog to my post “.Mobi Meltdown” where I linked to another blogger with whom I agreed about .mobi names at the TRAFFIC auction. I was going to respond in the comment section of that person’s blog, but I ended up writing quite a bit and figured I would give my thoughts more exposure rather than burying them at the bottom of someone else’s blog.
From DomainerDeveloper.com:

“I must reiterate that I find it disenchanting and absolutely remarkable how so many credible, domain industry veteran investors appear to still be missing the mark when it comes to understanding these fascinating domain extensions. Instead of exploring the many possibilities and communities that are building up around these unique extensions, they continue their relentless attacks.”

First off, I disagree that I have been a source of “relentless attacks.” Before last week when I asked “Is There Money in .Mobi Development,” (which only received one affirmative response with hundreds of page views) the last time I even mentioned anything about .mobi was a February 7th post where I was commenting on someone else’s post about the trouble facing .mobi in getting consumers to recognize and adopt the extension. Prior to that, my last mention was way back in December – a lifetime in this business. If this is considered relentless, that’s pretty weak.
Aside from this inaccuracy, I must ask one important question. Why would I care about .mobi or .any other extension when I can do the same shit with my .com names? If I believe many mobile users are navigating to my websites, I can make sure the mobile browser is detected to give the visitor an optimal experience. Whether I own the .mobi or not, my websites can be mobile-ready, just like thousands of other large companies who may not have even heard of .mobi (or own their .mobi names for protective purposes).
I don’t have the time or bandwidth to develop more than a few domain names at a time. Why would I want to mess around with an unproven extension when I can stick to .com? I am sure there are plenty of people who have plenty of time to experiment and try to earn a return on their investment, but I don’t have the time or the desire to become a .mobi missionary.
At this moment, I don’t envy people who paid mid 5 figures recently for .mobi names to see the 13 “premium” names sell for no more than $18k at last week’s TRAFFIC auction. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, people like Rick Schwartz can afford to take a $200,000 gamble on a .mobi or .whatever domain name. If he hits paydirt in 5 years, people will still probably be jerkoffs to him, but it is his prerogative. I don’t see a very active market for .eu domain names, and I am not familiar with too many that are developed, although there were many people who spent thousands of dollars on those names.
When I buy a domain name for development, I make sure the name is as liquid as possible in the event things don’t work out. If I wanted to sell Lowell.com, Burbank.com (currently under development), WeddingEntertainment.com or a few other names I own, I could make a profit because I bought them for fair prices. If I paid $25k for a non-“premium” .mobi name, I wouldn’t be happy at this moment knowing what these recent “premium” names did. That was the point of my last post.
Sure, maybe 5 years from now some alternate extension domain owners will hit paydirt. IMO, it would have been smarter to invest in more liquid domains in the .com extension either for development or to flip. Are condo investors in Vegas or Miami happy when they see much lower comps on similar condos that they own? Are they willing to wait out the market? Some are, but many are just trying to not lose their shirts when they sell rather than waiting out the market.
Sure, maybe I am “missing the mark,” but I think we are aiming for different things.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. FINALLY! Someone in the domain community recognizes that Rick Schwartz supporting .mobi is meaningless.
    Rick waaaaaayyyy overpaid for Flowers.mobi and now he’s put it on Fusu in an effort to recapture some of the lost money. If I remember correctly, he’s also the same guy that pissed away his money on all of ‘virtual Florida’ in a second-life rip-off that never materialized.
    He can afford to take these risks because he’s set for life. I’ll even take it a step further and say that the older generation of domainers are the least experienced because they haven’t had to scrape and fight for great domain names; they were simply in the right place at the right time.
    .mobi is a BUST. Any experienced domainer can see that.

  2. I knew this was coming. Just to set the record straight, I did not specifically identify you or your blog as a source of “relentless attacks.” I do not feel that way about you, nor was it my intention to convey that message about you in my post. I simply linked to the comment section of your “mobi meltdown” post because, believe it or not, the comment that I was writing to submit turned into the blog post that you are now criticizing.
    I hear your frustration, and for that I do apologize. You’ve been in this business much longer than I have, and believe me the last thing I want to do is step on any toes that don’t deserve stepping on.
    In response to the question that you asked me:
    “Why would I care about .mobi or .any other extension when I can do the same shit with my .com names?”
    Elliot, there is one thing (and quite possibly this is exactly what lyes at the very center of my faith in the .mobi extension) that you or anyone else for that matter will never be able to do with your .com’s and that is to instantly convey to the world that this domain is a “MOBILE CONTENT ONLY” site that has been specifically developed for access and use through a micro-interfaced device.
    I’m not so sure that we are aiming for different things, but we very well may be using different artilleries.
    @Mike S. – .mobi is far from a bust.

  3. Elliot,
    I for one have been very supportive of you, your blog, and your insight.
    And continue to be so. I find this blog the most informative, thought provoking and, most of the time, sedate and civil discussions regarding domaining and other aspects of business.
    Sure, I am a mobiphile. But that does nothing to diminish my desire for acquiring good .com, .net, and even .mobi.
    Sorry to see you get so upset about this. But now that you have vented I hope you feel better. Quit a shocking read coming from you. Wasn’t expecting it.
    But, continue on with your “aiming for the mark”.
    Sometimes we may have different marks. But I think our goals are still the same.

  4. “…you or anyone else for that matter will never be able to do with your .com’s and that is to instantly convey to the world that this domain is a “MOBILE CONTENT ONLY” site that has been specifically developed for access and use through a micro-interfaced device.”
    Jamie,
    Please think about this.
    Your point above that .MOBI conveys a website geared toward micro=device viewing was relevant when web pages could not be viewed “As Is” over cellphones and other “micro-interfaced device(s).”
    Blame Apple’s iPhone for spoiling that scenario.
    If you are realistic, you should see that the iPhone
    instantly made the .MOBI extension unnecessary.
    To add insult to injury, it also has a .COM button
    built in.
    I realize not everyone has an iPhone at this time.
    But you can be sure other competitors are not standing still.
    Next generation phones, including newer iPhones, will
    just continue hammering nails in .MOBIs coffin.
    IMHO, .MOBI has no future.
    If you believe otherwise, continue to invest, develop,etc.
    Maybe you’ll prove naysayers, like me, wrong.
    Happy domaining,
    Patrick

  5. @Jamie,
    Your “MOBILE CONTENT ONLY” argument is hogwash. The .MOBI extension does not signify or offer any additional value to mobile device users.
    There are plenty of .COM web sites out there that check borwser headers for the device/browser type and dynamically serve content for iphones, other cell phones, heck even the Nintendo DS !
    – Richard

  6. Sorry, had to check today’s date. For minute there, I thought I ended up on a thread from May 27, 2007.
    Appears to be same arguments against mobi recycled.

  7. @Patrick – I’m familiar with the argument that you refer to, and while there are a list of rebuttals that I could rattle off, I’ll keep my comments geared to what is most vital for brevities sake.
    First of all, I believe, that many .mobi dooms-dayers are giving Apple’s iphone and itouch way too much market moving capability over a very young, yet mammothly sized, mobile device market space. We saw a similar round of “Apple inspired” confusion swell up in 2003 during the ipod vs. every other MP3player debates.
    The fact is that there currently are, and will be hundreds, if not thousands more, unique, small-screened, web ready devices coming to market. Therefore, wouldn’t one think that there will be a substantial immersion of application developments and web based projects which are specifically being tooled for use with these, potentially thousands of new devices?
    Would you agree, that it is highly likely that those businesses may choose to promote their “mobile specific” web-applications and “mobile specific” web-tools with the potentially internationally recognized .mobi extension?
    @Richard (Bahamas Hosting) What exactly does “hogwash” mean anyway?
    I believe that the most relevant point of this controversially sensitive debate continues to be overlooked. Let me try again to see if there is any hope in getting it through…
    Regardless of the device manufacturer’s technology, or of its ability to present existing webpage content, there is still no foundation for the mostly speculative notion that the .mobi domain extension is “melting down” or that it is of no true value to the end user or the developer.
    Please allow me to elaborate. The only humanly quantifiable metric that I have found that can justify the overall value of any extension is when, and let me be specific, is when the extension JUST MAKES SENSE.
    OK, so let’s talk about ‘making sense.’ Since it’s apparently evident by those commenting on Elliot’s post that I have failed to make any.
    .com makes sense because it’s had over 18 years of market domination and has carve itself deeply into societies cognitive mainframe by COMmercialization of COMmerce driven businesses. Companies and individuals that were interested in expanding there COMmercial brand’s awareness by marketing it globally to the COMmunity of the web. So yeah, there’s no one arguing that .com is the prom queen running naked on the beach.
    OK.. now lets take a look at .net – Well does anyone want to talk about the value of NETworks? Does anyone want to share what it feels like to be runner up in a beauty contest? I didn’t think so.
    OK.. and I really hate to do this, but when you’re quickly trying to teach Web 101 to an unseen, untouchable, inaudible, global audience, some things require simplification that even a 2nd grader can comprehend.
    Now, where were we.. oh yeah, .org… Well, do I really need to keep at this? Tell me you’re finally getting it and that you want me to shut up.
    If any of you reading this insist that I must convince you that there are in fact other domain extensions that have inherent, unique attributes which significantly increase the odds of their mass adoption by the broader market, then I guess I really am the one in need of a head check. Maybe I am out of my league here.
    All I can do is go with my gut, listen to my heart, and follow my intuition – then see where the market heads. If in a few years time (and a few innovations later) .mobi, .tv, and .fm have all failed to naturally rise to the ranks that I believe that they are heading, then I will have no shame in admitting their apparent “melt downs” and will humbly move on to that which the market has officially elected.
    Until that bit of history has been indisputably written in stone, I will continue with developing my “mobile specific” web-tools and web-applications with the intent of promoting them via the “skull and crossbones” .mobi brand. And likewise, I will confidently upload more of my band’s “video” footage and interviews to my .TV channel. And you can bet that I will not think twice about moving forward with building out all of my 24hour streaming “radio” shows on their genre specific .fm identifiers.
    I’ll end this (the longest comment that I’ve ever left on a blog) with a last tid-bit of solid information that even god (if he/she/it is reading this) would not be able to argue with. It’s a link to a video of Sir Tim Berners Lee (One of the inventors of the web as we know it today) It may help those who are interested in the future of the web, to better understand what all this hogwash really means.
    http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20060314_139

  8. These so called ‘domain experts’ are elitist hypocrites who hate it when someone puts a mirror up to their face. eRealEstate.com. Enough said.

  9. Let’s think like a average Joe on the street with an iPhone in his pocket for a minute. If Joe wanted to look up the closest pizza joint or flower shop, would he type pizza.mobi or flowers.mobi into his phone?
    Nope, he will type the .com and if the .com is smart enough to have a WML (a mobile content language) version of their site, they’ll get his business every time.
    There are established standards for mobile content that many sites are using, and as mobile users demand more mobile content, I bet more sites will serve it.
    Everyone should search google for “wordpress mobile plugin” and then everyone can make their blogs mobile friendly so that you can stop buying .MOBI domains. 🙂
    – Richard

  10. I have not seen a “relentless attack” on anything by you, Elliot. Others yes, but not you. This is a developers’ tld. For people interested in straight domaining, I agree, you are better off with .com. If you want to develop something useful and concise for a phone, I personally like .mobi better. The monetization options at this point are pretty slim but growing. It just depends what your goals are. Quick flip for over $100,000? Yes, by all means, go with .com. Quick, useful sites for people on the go without any guesswork? That would be .mobi.

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    The purpose of my blog is to educate. I have been more than willing to share my domain investment and development strategy and I am not very secretive about anything. I got into the industry by being a domain investor. I agree that .mobi is a developers’ tld. However, I see too many people investing in .mobi with no plans to develop. They are speculating on .mobi, and I don’t think it’s a smart investment. I liken it to investing in a penny stock. Sure, it could increase in value, but it is more likely that it won’t. The people who got in early made money and sold for great profits. If the recent auction is an indicator of the market value of .mobi names, I am glad I only own 3-4 of them.
    My goal is to educate other domain investors based on my own experience. I saw huge buying in various tld (.eu, .mobi…etc) when they were released and there were some immediate big sales that followed. This caused others to speculate trying to make some money by flipping, and I think people began to over pay. I don’t think .mobi is a safe investment at this point, and I want people who read my blog to know that.
    If I overpay for a .com name by a lot, I can sink a few hundred dollars into its development and begin to generate traffic and revenue. I don’t see that as a viable option for .mobi. Perhaps you can build and drive some traffic, but I really haven’t heard very many testimonials about generating revenue.
    This blog is based on my experience and my opinion. I still haven’t see any concrete evidence which would make me want to invest in the .mobi extension.

  11. I love all the suggestions about leaving mobi alone, mobi is not needed, just type in .com, use the iphone, auto detection…

    How many have actually done this on this thread?

    How many of you have actually used any mobile phone using any auto detection and any .com site of a mobile?

    Better yet, how many have used an actual .mobi site, built to mobile compliant standards.

    I have a motorola something, a Helio Ocean, and an iPhone.

    But there is no comparison whatsoever to a .com site being auto detected and rendered. When this happens, the browser and software makes a failed decision on what it thinks is relevant and should be viewed. The site loses its functionality, especially when it comes to log in and other pertinent information. I do not want a browser to determine what is important and what it decides not to show. This is not the case with a .mobi compliant site.

    The auto dectection or rendering is pathetic. When I view such things on my Ocean, I have to find the HTML prompt to view the site and then it is scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll

    Lets talk about the iphone for a minute. Great wonderful tool. Superb technology. Why, it can take the entire new york times and put it on my screen. Scroll, scroll, scroll, that is what you are doing with your fingers. Call it expanding, sweeping, whatever you want to call it. But it is still scrolling until you find the article you want to read and then you have to tap it, get to another page and scroll, scroll, scroll….

    I love .com. I really do. I have made a killing with it.

    But everyone, right now…try something.

    Visit Boroughs.mobi and SDCA.mobi on your phones.

    Don’t have a web enabled phone? Use your pc or laptop.

    Now tell me what is missing or lacking. What, all the ads?

    Do you think people want ads or do they want content, directions, updates, news when they are using their phones.

    The beautiful part is these sites are made to be used on ANY MOBILE device and work equally well. Pull out those expensive iphone toys and try either of these sites and tell me how difficult they are to navigate and use.

    They work equally well and flawlessly on a PC.

    Meanwhile, while these sites are being built, along with countless others, their gTLD counterparts are usually nothing more than a parked page…no nontent. Just parked.

    My point to all of this bickering is simply the notion of people not liking something yet have never tried it. I thought I hated asperagas until I was in Italy and they were served with a wonderful meal. It was simply the way it was prepared that made all the difference in the world.

    That is what .mobi is…it is prepared differently. It is delicious and serves up relevant timely content that the user is looking for.

    Want to see an awesome .mobi site? One that will blow you away? Look at departing.mobi.

    Beautiful full featured content rich site. Go to the top menu and press mobile. A site that works so well on the PC, laptop, and the mobile.

    Want to talk about stripped down sites? We already did when we mentioned auto detection. Why have a browser determine what you see and what you don’t see?

    I personally know the developers and the owners of these sites.

    These guys go about their business quietly and steadfastly and speak very little. I guess in a sense I am their mouth. I often challenge them to speak up and tell people what they want to hear.

    Elliot did ask a couple of weeks ago if anyone is making money from .mobi development or sites.

    You damn well better believe they are. Numbers, stats, revenue, traffic, usage, browsers, and other analytics don’t lie.

    Many would be shocked at the numbers and would not believe them so I guess there is really no point in posting them.

    In the meantime, these are live sites. Their competition, the other gTLD’s?

    departing.com – parked
    departing.net – parked
    departing.info – parked
    departing.org – not resolving

    So tell me, who has the upper hand here for creating a web presence and providing content? Content that is timely, current, and relevant?

    100% of the competition is parked. Therefore, there is no competition. Domainers want to horde domains. Park them and the traffic will come. I do the same damn thing. But in the meantime we bitch and gripe about the PPC dropping and how we are getting screwed. What do we do…change to another company.

    So I like the odds of .mobi. I like the ease of creating a feature rich site with timely and relevant content. I like how everyone who thinks it is not needed are domainers.

    Domainers need to start viewing themselves as consumers. And on a global scale, domainers are a very very small minute drop in the bucket compared the the vast number of global consumers. Yes, domainers control the domain industry. Keep on parking those domains.

    But domainers do not and will not control consumerism and habits and trends and technological advances.

    Time to rethink the role of domainers in the grand scheme of things. They do not sit on boards of Fortune 500 companies, they do not make marketing decisions for national and international brands, and they do not tell the “joe blow” on the street what site he should or should not be visiting.

    Domainers.

    Amazes me how someone can not like something without even trying it.

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    I have no reason to explore any .mobi options when I can either use the bookmarked websites or just visit the .com that I use when I am browsing from home. In the past year, I have probably visited Google.com, CNN.com, MLB.com, NBA.com, finance.yahoo.com, weather.com, a few of the domain forums and some random websites. I use the web to find quick things like news, scores, weather and stock quotes. I have no need to go searching to find .mobi sites at all when I can find what I need by using .com. Now if I am not adopting .mobi when I know about it, I am pessimistic about the general public adopting it any time soon – ie .name, .eu, .travel, .biz .etc.
    As far as I know, most of the sites that are of interest to web browsers are accessible by going to the .com. Whether a person is forwarded to the .mobi or not, if they can type in the .com, that’s what they will use. There are far more inaccessible .mobi sites on the web than .com sites. In fact, if you go to CNN.mobi on your handheld, you get this error message: “HTTP Error 503 Service Unavailable” even though it’s owned by CNN.
    Now if I know about .mobi and don’t use it, how can you reasonably expect non-proficient people to use it – some of whom still type their intended domain destination into Google and Yahoo?
    This is kind of a pointless argument. I think that the money in .mobi lies in consumer adoption and the ability to generate revenue from mobile browsers. I don’t think there is much money in .mobi domain investment at this moment.

  12. Wow. What a great thread. Great points from both Elliot and Gerry.
    I (mostly) agree that there isn’t as much value in parking some of the alternate TLDs including .mobi. But as a marketer who advises his clients on ways to stand apart from the competition, those alternate TLDs are essential.
    I’m still new to domains and I wish I could cite a bunch of companies that have built successful business (or even mini-sites) using the lesser known TLDs (deli.cio.us is the only one that comes to mind) but I can honestly say that businesses that stick to .com as their only TLD are missing the opportunity to distinguish themselves easily and creatively using everything from .asia to .yn.

  13. @Elliot, There is an enormous difference between ESPN.com and ESPN.mobi, Weather.com and Weather.mobi, and many others including EzineArticles.com and EzineArticles.mobi. .mobi sites can complement their .com counterparts nicely. They are, however, quite different and don’t depend on a browser to guess – the browser often guesses wrong. This discussion has inspired me to answer the other comments with a blog post of my own. The conversation continues.

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    Maybe it looks different, but I can just as easily get the information I need from the .com.

  14. Dotmobi sucks. C/mon, guys. It is the laughingstock of serious investors. Those who don’t have any good dotcoms generally have lots of bad dotmobi’s.
    Dotmobi’s are really horrible and worthless. Kinda stupid.

  15. @Elliot…

    “This is kind of a pointless argument. I think that the money in .mobi lies in consumer adoption and the ability to generate revenue from mobile browsers. I don’t think there is much money in .mobi domain investment at this moment.”

    That is the beautiful part about all of this. It (the adoption by the consumer) is not up to us (domainers). As much as we would like to think it is so, it is not and never will be. Domainers do not control the media outlets and make decisions for consumer behavior. How many domains are registered daily because of consumer behavior and trends?

    One of the biggest ongoing faults I find in much of these discussions is the limitations to ones own perception to time and place. Who here has any notion of this gTLD’s widespread acceptance and adoption on a global scale?

    Why? Because it makes sense. Perfect sense that .mobi says mobile. And wishing it away does not make it go away. Sorry, but the mobile internet is here. And .com will be part of it. But .mobi will also. It is done.

    Acceptance by domainers is not needed for this extension to be a success in numerous circles it has already proven to be.

    Recite stats? Naw, that’s been done too many times. I think it is time to do ones own research.

    Perhaps there is not much money in mobi “investment” at the moment. But there is certainly much ground to be gained and held by mobi “building” whilst the rest of the gTLD’s remain stagnant parked pages.

    And, as I mentioned in another of your threads, sometimes it ain’t about the money. iCPR.mobi is purely about a service.

    @ Lord Grillo Says:

    “Dotmobi sucks. C/mon, guys. It is the laughingstock of serious investors. Those who don’t have any good dotcoms generally have lots of bad dotmobi’s.

    Dotmobi’s are really horrible and worthless. Kinda stupid.”

    Is that the best you can come up with?

    These are the exact same comments I was reading in 2004 when .mobi was proposed. Yes, 2004.

    It might be prudent to come up with a valid argument or point rather than say those that have .mobi’s usually have sucky .com’s.

    I can assure you, that is not the case on my side of this discussion.

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***

    I disagree that the stats are out there. It’s a cop out to tell me to do my research. If you have some, share them, just like I have shared just about everything as much as I can. I have been very public in sharing my personal research, so the least you can do is actually cite real results – if they are there. I haven’t seen any.

    BTW, I totally agree that it’s great to do a non-profit site like icpr.mobi. However, you probably wouldn’t have been so willing to do that had you paid $10,000 for the name. Most people in the industry don’t invest in domain names to break even or lose money.

  16. Elliot,

    I assure you it is not a cop out.

    I have littered the forums and threads for more than a year now.

    Do you want another play by play of the early adoptors and the current ones?

    You yourself are (was?) a member of mobility. The daily news releases of major corporations going with mobi can be nauseating.

    The idea of “doing your own research” are for the benefit of those readers who do not do their own research and who depend on others, like you and I, to supply that information yet still want to dispute the numbers.

    I respect you not wishing to jump into the mobi arena as some others have.

    And I would not have spent $10,000 for icpr.com. Or $5000.

    I spent $7.99 to buy a domain and build a site.

    I do not rely or depend on domaining for a living. So, from time to time, I can “afford” do public service like sites. And, hey, it makes me happy to think I am doing some good.

    Plus…

    iCPR.com – parked
    iCPR.net – parked
    iCPR.info – parked
    iCPR.org – parked

    By the way, would love to see that mobile version of Lowell next time I am up that way.

    Miss the Lowell, Andover, and other parts of that region.

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    Nauseating – couldn’t agree more 🙂
    I monitor all the sources of traffic to Lowell.com, and people haven’t been navigating on their mobile browsers. However, if they were, I could make it adaptable – but I am having my developer work on Burbank.com and WeddingEntertainment.com at the moment – with a bit of time dedicated to Lowell.com.
    I should only be so lucky that the owner of the .mobi version develop a very popular site, as that would certainly drive traffic to Lowell.com. However, it appears that it is simply parked, so it probably won’t be on anyone’s radar screen.
    Gerry – as always, I appreciate the back and forth we have, and I look forward to a lively face-to-face conversation sometime down the road. You are doing good things for people (offline) and it is certainly appreciated by everyone including those who might not be able to express it at the time.

  17. at vet. pup bit bee. inshock but should be ok on helio. this site is horrible on a mobile. we gotta talk 🙂 thanks for the interaction. i can make you mobile in less than thirty minutess. and in13 languages. see msevenmile.com or maybe mobile. scroling about forty times to get here sucks.

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    Hope your pup gets better ASAP.

  18. Thanks Elliot.

    Pup will be fine. 4 months old and swelling was so severe that she was going into anaphylactic shock and great difficulty breathing. Great vet, great to have an emergency after hours service like this.

    Broke a few laws and speed limits getting there but happy to do it.

    Man, I hate qwerty keyboards. Not made for big fingers and thumbs.

    Back to domaining.

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    My fiancee and I have a 7 month old puggle. She’s had two cherry eyes (which needed operations) and was just spayed last month. She is always getting into everything, and if she wasn’t cute as hell, I’d hate her 🙂
    As frustrated as I get when I have to break up my day by taking her for a walk, I am sure it’s good for my health!

  19. Great thread and I thought I would jump in with a few thoughts of my own but mainly to address the ‘why would I care about .mobi when I can do the same on .com’ query that constantly pops up. To be honest, we get this all the time and many seem to be missing the point entirely. Perhaps we [dotMobi] don’t do a good enough job getting the message across and if that is the case, shame on us.
    The .mobi extension is all about context. We all have specific needs and wants when we are are the move – no, I don’t particularly want to read up on the latest share price information but yes, where is the nearest Coke machine / ATM / gas station thanks very much. And why would I necessarily want to weave my way through a PC site – clearly designed for a sit-at-my-desk-with-big-screen experience – that has been squished onto the small screen of a mobile device?
    It is entirely true that a lot of big brands are automatically redirecting viewers to a portion of their site that is mobile friendly, telling them that they are embarking on a mobile experience. Not a problem in our eyes – this is absolutely fine and more power to them.
    However, if you want to take control, be proactive, not be second guessed and state your choice of accessing a site that suits your mobile context, you use the .mobi domain. Much the same as someone actively typing in amazon.de because they want a German language experience for that site or amazon.co.uk because they want an English language experience.
    We have always been upfront about the fact that there are other ways of creating a mobile experience. The iPhone is a fabulous product (in the pockets of many dotMobi employees I might add) but dotMobi is as much about branding, reliability, using that trustmark, being in control, knowing your destination address, as any fancy technical solution. That is why airlines, banks, national newspapers, television channels etc are all embracing it and have helped us reach our one million domain milestone in less than two years. However, we have far from ‘arrived’ and in the meantime, we encourage everyone to develop, develop, develop.
    As regards our auction results at Traffic last week – there has been more than enough commentary on the economy, downward pressure on the domain market etc so I won’t add too much to that. Sales at Traffic – while highly commendable in this current climate – were clearly down right across the board if one takes time out to peruse the sales list. Our names sold at solid prices and we are perfectly happy with the result. Onwards and upwards.
    Great blog Elliot, I am an avid reader.
    Caroline Greer
    dotMobi

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