Facebook and MySpace Are Mobile!

(This may be old news. In my absence I kind of lost track of which popular websites still had not launched a mobile, off-portal version.)

For you kids out there that can't get enough of Facebook and MySpace in the many hours you spend in front of your computer, you can now get your fix on your mobile phone. MySpace can be accessed at http://m.myspace.com and Facebook at http://m.facebook.com. As I don't reside in the demographic sweet spot for these social networking sites, I can't really tell you much about what you can or can't do on the mobile sites that you can do on the regular websites (Sorry!). I can tell you that Facebook prompts you to update your status as soon as you log in, so all of your friends -- real and imagined (like my readers) -- can know what you are doing when you are mobile. This makes a lot of sense. I imagine the stereotypical user makes plans with his/her friends on these websites before they head out to the bars and night clubs, but what happens if plans change once everyone is out and about? That friend with the night class that was going to meet up later gets left behind unless you have access to a computer, which is not likely in a bar.

I'll stop pretending that I know how today's teens and twentysomethings use Facebook and MySpace. It's just making me sound old. I would like to make the observation that the "m.domain-name.com" format appears to be winning out as the standard address format for mobile websites. I'm glad. It really makes the most sense to me. Most companies already have a ".com" domain. They shouldn't have to buy a ".mobi" domain as well. It also makes it easier for consumers to check if a company has a mobile website. All you have to do is replace the "www" in the company's web address with an "m" to get your answer. The "m" is also short, which is great when you are on a mobile device. Who wants to type the longer ".mobi" suffix -- or worse -- an address with a slash and even more letters and numbers beyond that?

Okay, I am way off on a tangent now. I need to go to sleep.