Mobile Only Domain: Too Little, Too Late?

from the way,-way-too-late dept

For years, we've been pointing out many of the reasons why a separate domain for the "mobile internet" isn't needed. Simply stated, it's a bad idea designed to force companies to part with more money, but provides little real value. As networks get faster, mobile phones get increasingly "smarter," and mobile browsers (Opera still leading the pack) get better, there's little real reason to move mobile-optimized pages to an entirely separate domain. Many devices can handle the full internet browsing experience without having to revert to some alternate internet world -- and it's increasingly simple to optimize a site to recognize what kind of device is accessing the content and present the content appropriately. Yet, the .mobi domain keeps moving forward. The latest is that it's finally set a date to start taking applications. The thing now is that beyond just being pointless, it seems like this offering is really late to the game. .mobi was approved over a year ago, when you could still make an argument for why it was needed. However, by the time .mobi domains really start showing up (not for almost another year), it's hard to see any remaining need.