Have you done a mobile search for Olympics results and been disappointed with the number of sites you could access on a mobile phone? Are most of the results for full pc sites? What did you see, and did you see the same thing as everyone else? That’s what we’d like to know.

You’re Invited to the Experiment

This is a pretty easy experiment. Here’s how to participate:

1. Type the following into your browser: Winter + Olympics + mobile
2. Tell us what search engine you used
3. Tell us what city/country you were in at the time of the search
4. Indicate whether you used a computer or a mobile phone to get the results
5. Provide the top ten results
6. Post your findings in either the comments, below (moderated) or in an email to information [at] mobiEnthusiast.mobi (subject line: experiment)

Mobile Search Experiment Background

At least one prominent mobile blogger was disappointed with the small number of mobile sites that came back from his search on a mobile handset. So he did what most bloggers would do: He asked his readers to help him find out the answer.

Andy Favell, the Editor of mobiThinking asked the question, “Why are many great mobile Olympics sites not found by mobile search engines?”

This made me curious, too. Some of the people answered that mobile SEO (search engine optimization) in general is lacking. I weighed in and hypothesized that one’s location and browser type would define, in large part, which results were returned by search engines, as well as the age of the domain name and the ever-changing nature of search engine algorithms.

This morphed into a larger question about who gets to see what from mobile search. If you have a moment and want to participate, please join us.

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Can dotMobi compete with m. ?

Now that Afilias has purchased dotMobi, there is renewed discussion about whether or not .mobi can compete for mind share and market share with m. or mdot, the shorthand for made for mobile websites that start with m. in front of a brand’s primary web address.

“With the m-dot convention becoming the de facto standard for mobile Web addresses, it’s not clear how Afilias can suddenly generate fresh interest in the dot-mobi domain. Unless it can also revive the fortunes of Friendster at the expense of Facebook.” – Mark Walsh, MoBlog.com

Upon re-reading Mark’s quote, I don’t think it is an apples to apples comparison. Friendster was first, and Facebook came afterwards and passed it in the marketplace. .mobi was not there first, so it isn’t like it lost market share. It just never took off, or at least not yet.

If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, it strikes me that in the future, .mobi still could build momentum and eventually get to a tipping point of awareness if the right people started to care about it. That said, we are nowhere near the tipping point right now, and I think it could take another three years or so despite the fact that many people are yet again declaring 2010 “The year of the mobile web.”

This isn’t some pie in the sky idea. There is a recent precedent in the form of Twitter.

Twitter was around for years before most people even knew what it was, let alone the media phenomenon it is today. People called it a waste of time, a money loser, and worse (sound familiar?). Early adopters called those early days of fail whale sightings “Before Oprah,” which refers to the day mega-celebrity Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be tweeting on her show. Now I see twitter badges all the time on national television commercials, and I bet you do, too.

So, to everyone who sees mdot (as in m.something.com) as the default for how to access the internet on a mobile phone on the top social media and other high traffic sites, I’ll remind you of an important truth: just because something is on top right now doesn’t mean it will stay that way, especially in technology.

The tipping point will only happen if there is enough word of mouth in the right circles, so yes, it is important to continue to develop useful, popular sites in the .mobi namespace, and do whatever you can to get them to go viral.

It won’t happen by accident, though. And, it won’t happen overnight. It will build slowly as members of different communities start to notice developed .mobi sites that they like. Then, they will share it with one or two more people in their communities, and eventually, if enough good sites are built on .mobi, knowledge of .mobi will cross community lines, and eventually, celebrities will start to think it is a good idea and say so publicly.

Signs of Life in .mobi Promotion

Flymas.mobi has a killer of a viral promotion on Youtube right now. It’s user-generated content where people are trying to win free airplane tickets. Some of these videos are very funny. As a result of this contest, in Malaysia and other parts of the world served by Malaysia Airlines, you can bet they’ve heard of .mobi. More campaigns like this one can bring .mobi closer to the tipping point.

Afilias, I am not letting you off the hook for .mobi promotion. I’d like to see dotMobi move beyond the Business to Business strategy that left consumers in the dark about developed mobile sites. I’d like you to show bloggers and small business owners the possibility of registering great keywords at new registration prices.

That said, developers, get busy.

This post is included in Carnival of the Mobilists #212. Please visit the link and see what my mobile colleagues have to say.

Do you have a .mobi site with a viral video? Link it here in the comments (moderated). Let’s see what you’ve got!

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It’s time once again to vote for your favorite developed dot mobi site at Mobility.mobi. You must be a registered member to vote. There’s a good crop to choose from this month, so take a good look and choose your favorite:

B2B.mobi
BuckleUp.mobi (see the mobiEnthusiast writeup here)
ExchangeRates.mobi
Waist.mobi

Good luck to all of the site owners and developers.

© 2009 mobiEnthusiast.mobi

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BuckleUp.mobi has one objective: to convince people to fasten their seatbelts every time they get into an automobile.

If you have ever been to a funeral for someone who died in a car accident, it is a terrible loss. If a teen is involved, it somehow feels like life has cheated us out of the potential that “could have been” as well as the love we feel for a friend or family member. If a police officer later reports that the deceased wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, the “should have, could have, would have” drama often gets played out in our imaginations.

BuckleUp.mobi has information about seat belt usage, including videos of crash test dummies that are graphic in nature about what can happen in a collision where seat belts are not worn. There is a special section just for teens who are likely to make fun of each other for wearing seatbelts. Drivers under age 21 are less likely to wear seat belts and more likely to be in an accident than older drivers. Finally, there is an interactive poll to post how often the reader wears a seatbelt – when I looked, it said just 77% of respondents wear their seatbelt every time the get into a car. That’s not enough in my opinion.

Please share BuckleUp.mobi with someone you care about today.

This post has been submitted to Carnival of the Mobilists (not a mobile link), a weekly roundup of the top blogs around the web that cover mobile from all angles, from hardware to apps to mobile website. Please check out what my mobile colleagues have to say by visiting today.

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DUBLIN and WASHINGTON – Oct.13, 2009 – dotMobi, the company behind the .mobi top-level Internet domain, today announced the availability of its one-of-a-kind mobile keyword and .mobi domain bundle for Chinese brands and businesses, offered in partnership with China-based mobile keyword vendor Huarui.

Currently, more than 50% of China’s 1.3 billion citizens are estimated to be mobile subscribers – a figure that will quickly grow with the advent of 3G networks, which are just now arriving in China. And as with other countries, 3G mobile network speeds will drive the growth of mobile Web use. dotMobi’s unique mobile keyword and .mobi domain bundle is designed to meet the needs of businesses in that burgeoning mobile Web environment.

Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi, said, “The packaging of mobile keywords and .mobi domains is a global first. This gives Chinese site owners the flexibility of using the .mobi domain to help ensure successful discovery by search engines, while using both the .mobi domain and matching keyword in advertising efforts.”

Keywords – memorable words that a user can type into a mobile phone instead of a number – are very popular in China. And specific to the Chinese market, dotMobi will offer Web addresses in Chinese characters. These addresses in non-standard language characters are known as Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). The use of Chinese-character IDNs will allow Chinese-language mobile Web sites to be found more easily by search engines. According to Analysys International, more than 270 million Web searches were performed on mobile phones in China in the second quarter of 2009 – double the figure from a year earlier, which highlights the importance of search for the Chinese mobile Web.

“Huarai is pleased to work closely with dotMobi in bringing a unique solution to market for local businesses as well as global brands doing business in China. With 700 million Chinese mobile subscribers, a rising number are using the Web on their phones as carriers in China roll out 3G services. Being able to find content that works on mobile phones is extremely important, given the ongoing rise in mobile Web users, and that is why Huarui is happy to be collaborating with dotMobi,” said Mr. Ma Yanli, CEO of Huarui.

Availability

The dotMobi / Huarui bundle of keywords and Chinese-language .mobi domains will be available in a special sunrise period beginning at 4 a.m. UTC on October 29, 2009, and will finish at 4 a.m. UTC on November 28, 2009. Immediately after on November 28, 2009, general registration will commence, and the keyword / Chinese-language .mobi domain bundle will be available at standard prices.

More information for registrars is available by sending an email to IDNCHINA@dotmobi.mobi.

About dotMobi
Headquartered in Dublin, dotMobi is a worldwide leader in enabling the development & discovery of quality mobile content through innovative services, helping businesses and individuals reach the world’s billions of mobile phone users. dotMobi spurs mobile industry innovation by giving content providers the tools they need to ensure the Web will work on mobile phones with speed, accuracy and relevant content.

dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network & device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), Visa and Vodafone.

For information on .mobi domains and all dotMobi services, visit http://mobiDomain.com, and on mobile devices, visit http://mobiDomain.mobi.

For more information, please contact:
Vance Hedderel
dotMobi
+1-703-485-5563
vhedderel@dotmobi.mobi

Gareth Davies
Edelman for dotMobi (Europe)
+44-20-7344-1216
gareth.davies@edelman.com

Danielle Siemon
Edelman for dotMobi (US)
+1-650-762-2947
danielle.siemon@edelman.com

Note from mobiEnthusiast: Thank you to Mobility.mobi forum member ChineseDomain, who offers this additional clarification:

From the above link, you will know who is CATR, China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR) of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

HuaRui (北京华瑞网研科技有限公司), its English name is “Beijing RITT – Net Technology Development Co., Ltd”. There are few materials about it and only have Chinese Websites http://www.rntd.cn.

From the Chinese Introduction of HuaRui, it is an Join-venture company under CATR. The 12114 Chinese wireless keywords operation is under HuaRui. HuaRui manage the whole 12114 wireless keywords database. The China IDN.mobi and Wireless keywords bundle API/management is developed by HuaRui.

Note: there are several wireless keywords in China, 12114 is the one controlled by HuaRui. HuaRui and CATR are only company, not MII.

It is just like the “Name” of a domain, but it has no extension. It has to be used with SMS service number, i.e. 12114 here.

Wireless keyword is an addressing technology established on the quick access in wireless Internet by mobility equipment. This technology is the simplest method for acquiring wireless website address. Wireless keyword establishes the bridge of wireless information communication between the Internet and mobile terminals so as to fundamentally solve the basic problems of the development of mobile informatization. The extensive application of this technology will enable mobile terminal users to acquire rich information from the wireless Internet with Chinese input method.

For Chinese IDN and Wireless keywords bundling, it means the 12114 wireless keywords, not others

How it works?
Send the “Keywords” with “Operations” to 12114 by SMS, then you will get what you you want by SMS. For example:
1. get the WAP url: send keywords “当当” to 12114, you will get the WAP URL of “当当网”(dangdang.com) by SMS in your mobile

2. vote: send “some keywords” with “your prefer name”, then you vote it by SMS.
3. Get the bus route: send “some keywords” with “start station” and “end station”, you will get the route from “start” to “end” by SMS.
4. Any more you want? It can. Donate Money, buy books, buy tickets…

It require backend application to support complex wireless keyword features.

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Do you blog about mobile? Need some exposure for your blog?

I run the blog MobiEnthusiast.mobi. Lately, I have been involved in many projects and do not have time to give it the attention it deserves. For example, there are two major mobile conferences going on right now, one in London and one in San Diego, and they didn’t get covered due to time constraints. MobiEnthusiast gets decent traffic, though, and I would hate for it to fizzle out.

If you blog about mobile, and would like to make a guest post about something of interest to mobile internet readers, I invite you to submit a proposal for an article for publication.

There will not be monetary compensation for the article, but you will get author credit and a link back to your site. The exposure is considerable:

MobiEnthusiast had readers from 99 countries last month, and is featured on Guy Kawaski’s Alltop, dotMobi’s MobiThinking, DNJournal Resources, and other similar sites. Your blog entry will also be tweeted through my @mobienthusiast account, which has over 4,000 followers (I routinely block bots and sp*am accounts).

Ground rules:

1.) Must be mobile related
2.) Can’t be a sales pitch
3.) Must be business- and family-friendly (teens and kids find our site sometimes since we cover apps in their age group)
4.) Must link to a business- or family-friendly site
5.) Can’t be political (again, readers from 99 countries don’t always agree on politics)

I reserve the right to edit for grammar.

One article per week will be submitted for inclusion in Carnival of the Mobilists.

Interested? Send me a message on LinkedIn or email it to information [at] mobienthusiast.mobi.

Thanks!

All the Best,
Holly

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If you’re out and about on a mobile phone, it can be a real hassle to find a pen and paper. One of the greatest advantages of creating a mobile website is the ability to create a link that enables web visitors to click to dial a phone number. For an example of this feature, have a look at Leucadia.mobi, a mobile website with helpful information for the community of Leucadia, California. Other than 911, all of the emergency numbers are click to call.

Until now, it’s been difficult for mobile publishers to monetize this feature. That could change soon. Commission Junction is having a free webinar on August 6 to detail the features of their pay-per-call program. I don’t know whether or not this will work to monetize a dot mobi site, but I am going to attend the webinar to find out.

Details are at cj.com (computer link). You will need your CID # to register. Your CID number can be found next to your name/company name in the upper right corner of the page after you have logged in.

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Jim Atwood made a WordPress blog and used a mobile plugin. That’s impressive, but not unique. After all, I do that here on mobiEnthusiast.mobi every day. The unique part is that Jim is an American living in Japan. As a mobile internet junkie, I want to learn all I can about what makes mobile tick in a country that is mostly mobile-only – especially since I don’t understand the language.

According to Jim, it is common in Japan to make two completely separate versions of a website. One is for desktop computers, like his standard blog, Ricochehost.com (computer link), and a completely separate, stand-alone mobile website, such as his mobile blog, JimAtwood.mobi.

In Jim’s words:

The Japanese like to make things simple and have two sites. This avoids the browser detection problems that everyone has all the time. With just one dedicated mobile site, things are much easier. In some cases, Japanese website only one version and that is mobile. In my opinion, mobile usage for the Internet is much more prevalent in Japan.

As a mobi enthusiast, this is music to my ears. It makes perfect sense to avoid trying to guess what new phone is going to come out next and garble my site. Granted, mTLD/dotMobi does a great job with Device Atlas, but if you make a site that complies with ready.mobi in the first place, it is much simpler and saves a lot of time and headaches. Dot com for computers, dot mobi for mobile web.

I met Jim through LinkedIn (mobile link). If you are interested in networking with me on LinkedIn as well, please let me know.

Here’s to the mobile web!

This post is featured in Carnival of the Mobilists Issue #185. Check it out for a great weekly roundup of mobile bloggers.

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If you want the latest news from the top microblogging site, Twitter, just follow the hashtag #mobi. Hashtags are tags that begin with the # sign and are followed by a keyword. They are intentionally used by Twitter members to make it easy for people following that particular topic to find news about it.

For news directly from dotMobi (mTLD), follow @dotMobiOfficial. It’s an official account from their Public Relations Department. The editor of MobiForge, the developer forum, is on twitter as well as @rodono.

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Do you own or represent a business? Or are you a regular person who likes to write about your hobbies? If so, there has never been a better time to be at the forefront of a technical phenomenon. As usual, I’m talking about the mobile web.

You see, domain name investors have finally figured out that there is no money to be made in cluttering up the mobile internet with empty websites that show only advertisements. So, they’ve abandoned many of their mobile domain names. This blasts the door wide open for businesses and regular people to register short, memorable mobi domain names for their business or blog to reach well, essentially the entire world. It’s a great way to build your brand on the mobile web.

Here are some recent examples of mobi domain names that have been abandoned (dropped) and are ready for you to register. If you are on a computer, iPhone or smartphone, you may go to the GoDaddy.com site to register .MOBI Domains from GoDaddy.com. If you plan to register many names, consider the GoDaddy.com Discount Domain Club. These names are of course one of a kind, and once they’re gone, they’re gone, so act quickly if you want one.

• logbooks.mobi (for a company that makes logbooks)
• dartboards.mobi (for a company that makes dart boards, or a directory site of pubs where you can play darts)
• drinkme.mobi (for a beverage manufacturer or drink recipe site)
• antimicrobial.mobi (for a scientific site or hand sanitizer company)
• gelatin.mobi (for a Jell-O site, or for scientific gelatin supplier)
• potbellys.mobi (for a wood burning stove company or enthusiast)
• remake.mobi (for a fan site about movie and song remakes)
• watchbands.mobi (for a company that makes custom or replacement watch bands)
• convoys.mobi (for a social media site for truck drivers)
• cubicles.mobi (for a company that makes cubicles or a social media site for cubicle-dwellers)
• drumkit.mobi (for a company that makes drums)
• chairlift.mobi (for a company that makes accessible chair lifts)
• sundaes.mobi (for an ice cream company, or ice cream recipe website)
• birdwatcher.mobi (for an informational site, or a directory of bird watching clubs, or an environmental site)
• earpiercing.mobi (for a directory of where to get ears pierced, or for a company that makes earrings or does ear piercing)

mobiEnthusiast.mobi recommends you check with your attorney or international patent website to make sure you aren’t at risk for infringement. If you need more ideas, you might enjoy the Power to the Small Business podcast, where I’ve described my interpretation of mobile marketing trends and best uses of mobile websites.

Enjoy! If you build a site on one of these mobi domain names, let us know about it. If it passes ready.mobi, we may feature it in an upcoming blog post here on mobiEnthusiast.mobi.

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