Domain Name Wire review of top 25 sales from early auction shows none are in compliance.
One of the stipulations for buyers of premium .mobi domain names through Sedo, Moniker, and other venues is that buyers actually develop them. The rules state:
The Website may initially consist of a dotMobi-compliant parking page; provided, however, that You agree to:
– Use Your best efforts to create, launch, and operate a live website related to and primarily containing content relevant to the commonly held and widely shared understanding of the meaning of the Domain Name to replace the parking page within six (6) months of the transfer of the Authorization Code by mTLD.
– Achieve and maintain a mobile readiness score of at least 4, as measured by the ready.mobi test then available at http://ready.mobi/.
The first Sedo auction of premium domain names took place in October. In December, Domain Name Wire reviewed the top 25 sales and found that few of them had .mobi-compliant parking pages. It has now been 6 months since the auction ended, and a check of these 25 .mobi domains shows that none have .mobi web sites on them.
When contacted for comment, Caroline Greer, Director of Policy, dotMobi said:
dotMobi is currently working on its premium name compliance program and is encouraged to see site development roll out across some of its auction names. We also know from talking to some of the buyers that more development is in the pipeline.
Our compliance efforts are as much to do with enablement as enforcement – that’s to say, providing tools and resources to facilitate mobile site building and promoting and highlighting the success stories. Development should really be a ‘no brainer’ for premium name holders seeking to increase the value of their domain portfolio and capitalize on business opportunities.
Although dotMobi has the money in the bank from selling these domain names, the long term survival of the registry depends on domain owners actually developing their sites.
Below are the top 25 domain sales from the first Sedo premium auction and their current status:
Hosting.mobi forwardes to dclux.com, non-mobi complaint web page
Bank.mobi does not resolve
Download.mobi does not resolve
Currency.mobi does not resolve
Insurance.mobi does not resolve
Chat.mobi non-mobi parking page
Traffic.mobi non-mobi parking page
Books.mobi non-mobi parking page
Free.mobi does not resolve
Loans.mobi compliant parking page
Marketing.mobi does not resolve
Creditcard.mobi does not resolve
Rent.mobi compliant parking page
Creditcards.mobi does not resolve
Voip.mobi forwards to VOIPgate.com, non-mobi compliant web page
Webcam.mobi does not resolve
DomainName.mobi does not resolve
DomainNames.mobi forwards to EUROdns.com
Advertising.mobi compliant parked page
Downloads.mobi non-mobi compliant web page
Credit.mobi compliant parking page
Atm.mobi non-mobi compliant web page
Payment.mobi non-mobi compliant web page
Index.mobi non-mobi compliant web page
Cricket.mobi compliant parking page
Hello to all Domain Name Wire readers,
Appreciate the posted commentary on .mobi domain compliance and auction results status.
As a key member of the .mobi ecosystem, our dotMobi Advisory Group (MAG); the dotMobi accredited, independent not-for-profit trade forum focused on .mobi domain policies, style guides and commercialisation efforts; has started a .mobi Compliance Task Force.
The goal for the task force is to further evaluate and recommend compliance policies, and encourage the awareness and development of made-for-mobile web sites for the benefit of all stakeholders engaged to deliver the best mobile Internet experience for consumers world wide.
Additionally, we are also starting a .mobi Premium Names Task Force initiative to further review, evaluate and recommend best practices for the balance of dotMobi names held in reserve.
The MAG .mobi Compliance Task Force is led by iLoop Mobile and our mobility.mobi chapter members representing the domainer community (along with key industry executives from the domain, registrar, developer, content and mobile industries) and has been established to coordinated industry at-large dialogue and recommendations to dotMobi and the dotMobi Policy Advisory Board (PAB), as per the dotMobi ICANN agreement. We invite all organisations to join the MAG and actively participate in our task force to further understand and deliver to the .mobi compliance opportunity; as well as our many other key .mobi domain initiatives.
Our goal for the task force effort is to independently evaluate current market conditions/requirements for .mobi compliance as well as service the industry-wide need for more educational outreach/awareness highlighting compliance requirements (as you have through this posting), including the market benefits of compliance – and the developer resources available to all domain owners to better serve billions of mobile consumers world wide through compliant mobile web sites.
As the MAG has been chartered and focused on .mobi policies, style guides and commercialisation initiatives since 2005 (even before the domain was available for sale), we have seen tremendous growth in market support and benefit to leveraging mobile web developments promoted through the .mobi domain. Results from recent web crawls and market research by mobile advertising firms have shown exponential growth in .mobi web site visibility thanks to major brand promotional campaigns and the consumer awareness of made-for-mobile search engines in the last 3-6 months.
Although the .mobi domain is still in its infancy – compared to PC-based domain extensions – it has been highly recognised by key global brands and the very complex mobile industry as a de facto standard and benchmark indicator for the successful growth of the off-portal mobile web industry. (FYI Some industry experts say the off-portal mobile web market will be much bigger than the PC web market within the next 2-3 years.) As a result, early .mobi domain owners (and even the naysayers) are changing their thoughts about the domain and its value in the end-to-end delivery of the best mobile web experience, independent of mobile device and network. This is witnessed by the exponential number of .mobi sites been launched in the last 3-6 months.
We highly encourage any, and all, .mobi domain owners to build their mobile web sites, meet the simple policies set for compliance and deliver more made-for-mobile web site inventory for all to benefit from. If there is a need for any domain name owner to find development resources and solutions to meet naming convention requirements, please let us know and we would be glad to have our member community help out build, service and support your .mobi domain investments, as this will benefit us all – and the mobile web industry – going forward.
To maintain the .mobi de facto standard and industry benchmark status for the mobile web, it requires all parties interested in the mobile web industry (and .mobi domain opportunity) to better harness our efforts together to ensure value invested in the domain’s full offerings benefits all stakeholders (especially mobile consumers).
Since the launch of the .mobi domain a couple of years ago, the dotMobi company and mobile web developer community has increased the access of tools, technologies and services to help domain owners, brands and agencies develop made-for-mobile sites including: ready.mobi, site.mobi, dev.mobi and deviceatlas.com as well as simple to use .mobi compliant site building tools from other industry vendors like GoDaddy, Network Solutions, mobiSiteGalore, iLoop Mobile and many others. The investments made into these mobile web development tools, technologies and services comes not only from domain name sales (dotMobi products/services are either free or very close to free for all to use), but from a much larger community effort investing in the future of the mobile web as a whole. We again highly recommend all domain owners and brands to take advantage of these simple to use tools and offerings to get any secured .mobi domains and associated made-for-mobile web sites available to market. Consumers, search engines and mobile advertising networks are all looking for more mobile web sites – building out .mobi web sites makes it easier for them all to find your site and service offerings.
As for full end-to-end .mobi compliance and status of recent auction results, we do encourage all actors from the domain, mobile and content developer industries to join with our initiative, actively voice your concerns, ideas for solutions, and enable us to all work together towards delivering to the mobile web promise to the ultimate benefactors: the mobile consumer.
To further advance your understanding of .mobi domain policies issues, opportunities, next generation of style guides (mobile commerce and more) and commercialisation initiatives; please join our MAG community.
We look forward to supporting the growth of the mobile web opportunity for all community benefit and to seeing all .mobi domains showcasing good mobile web content services.
Best regards,
Michael J. O’Farrell
Chair, dotMobi Advisory Group
Co-Author, Mobile Internet for Dummies
Wiley Publishing – June 2008
Here are some follow on comments at the Mobility forum.
As all things dotmobi does it just goes to show that they parked all 5500 common names in there vault to save us the people from profiteering on these names so they could parcel them out piecemeal and other people then bought the names and parked them. Dotmobi is their own worst enemy by holding these names hostage they have thwarted the free market economy and ruined a good idea from taking off. With the advent of android (Google) and the iphone they should see that they are again missing the boat. I have many times emailed them to release all the names and they instead are hoarding them and are ruining any chance of this domain name of ever happening. Same story two years later.
Little more than additional .mobi false hopes, broken promises, corporate-speak, and obfuscation…
You want to see more development on this ill-fated extension?
Take back a few high-profile ones from those who’ve not done what they agreed to do when they bought them…and resell them to others…if you dare.
Then watch the legal fur fly.
ps You state, “Even the naysayers are changing their minds about the domain.”
And just which naysayers are those?
Care to name some?
The restrictions are interesting. I wonder if they’ll be enforced. Also I wonder if I should include .mobi domains on my page (Available Domain Names)
As the owner of a substantial (largely developed) portfolio of mobi sites, I am disappointed about the apparent lack of making an effort to enforce development policy (although more than 6 months can be needed) as well as hoarding premium domains and at times releasing some through private contracts as was the case with capital city names and world mobi.
mobi should be far more established by now. Some of their policies seem to achieve the opposite of what they are meant to do. I suspect that their decision makers are their own worst enemies.
Just another useless domain extention in an endless sea of useless extentions. Everyone with half a brain just makes their traditional .com browser/device detect correctly and format to suit. Just a money making idea this .mobi junk
Absolutely useless TLD. The webserver should serve a mobile appropriate webpage if the client is a mobile client. This .mobi business is just a ponzi scheme.