why .mobi?
I got this ad from my webhost in my email:
Millions of people have the potential to visit your Web site from their mobile devices are you ready for them? With NEW .MOBI, the world’s first mobile-optimized domain, you can reach out to an entirely new, high-tech audience that’s waiting to connect with you.
I’ve heard about .mobi before, but I really don’t get it. First of all, why would you need a mobile domain for your site? Who will remember that it’s .mobi and not .com? You’re going to have to register .com anyway! And since you’re going to have a .com address, you can just have a mobile stylesheet or use browser detection to redirect cell-phone users to a mobile-friendly version of your page.
secondly, unless you have a blackberry or a sidekick, i find internet on the phone to be completely annoying! the tiny screen, the numeric keypad… basically, surfing the web on a mobile phone is a pain in the neck. it’s also ridiculously expensive. if you can afford a cell-phone you can probably afford internet access at home. there are a few ocassions where you might need to surf the web on a cell phone: 1. to check your email on your boring commute home (but can’t you read a magazine, or just wait until you get home!), 2. to look up someone’s phone number (which is probably the ocassion where the price of internet on your phone is worth it, given the ridiculous rates that directory services charge. 3. to check the traffic on say, sfbaytraffic.info. but on that site you really need to have a mouse to get all the information. calling 511 is cheaper.
so there you go. thank you monolithic phone industry. i might sound like a crotchity old man, but i just don’t see the point of mobile-web-surfing. i’m sure there are plenty of gadget-dependent type A personalities out there, plenty to make a profit off of… maybe it’s time i learned some WML. i’m sure it would straighten out a lot of my confusion.
