For those of you who are interested in knowing more about the .mobi top-level domain I mentioned in a previous post, here you go...
The .mobi domain is intended for sites that are designed to be used on wireless phones and other mobile devices. The Internet's governing body, ICANN approved the creation of the ".mobi" domain suffix in 2005. mobile Top Level Domain Ltd (mTLD), a joint venture of mobile technology companies, is the global registry for the .mobi top level domain. It has contracted to provide the registry service for .mobi for ten years.
As part of its contracts with companies that use the domain names, mTLD will require they follow a style guide that includes requirements such as the ability to use a site on a low-bandwidth connection. The company sees phones eventually appending the ".mobi" suffix to site addresses automatically, saving users the trouble of entering it via a numeric keypad.
To see what .mobi sites are already up and running, go to http://showcase.mtld.mobi/information.html.
Web developers: mTLD provides a free "Mobi Ready checker" to analyze your website's mobile-readiness, using industry best practices & standards. Many of the tests performed are based on the mobileOK work performed by the Mobile Web Initiative group of the World Wide Web Consortium. I ran the i wireless website through the checker and ironically, the site received a score of 1 out of 5.
