Creating a .mobi domain.

Who has done it before?

[DamonHD]

Hi,

It seems to be almost open season on .mobi now. I'm thinking of setting up my first mobile-access site now that the rubble of my various (WML) dot-bomb attempts has faded out of view.

Question 1) Since pages to be served are to be XHTML what are safe defaults for MIME-type (text/xhtml?) charset (utf-8?) and file extension (.xhtml?).

Question 2) What are typical prices for the (non-premium/reserved) domains? I've found at least one name that I like that is not yet taken.

Question 3) Do you have to have stuff (eg a functional Web site) up and running and compliant *before* the DNS/domain goes live? (Ignore chicken-and-egg issues here for a moment...)

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Anyone got a .mobi out there?

[Lexur]

I'd like to build one. After some test&research, the question (I'm blocked here) is: why would anyone build a WML website if the moble phones can browse in simple HTML (with some limitations, I know)?

I have the content (mostly news) and have the traffic (user with mobile phones) but I don't know if I should build a brand new XML site or a simplified HTML site. I bought a Sony-Ericsson and I can browse my sites (with big scroll bars, of course).

Maybe we should start a thread titled "How to build a .mobi site from scratch".

[DoingItWell]

I'm "landrushing" 4 .mobi domains - basically to secure the names and because I'm curious. Like you I've done some wml-stuff in the past, and want to get to know this stuff as well - but I haven't even read up on the domain premises yet. xhtml you say? I basically use that on regular websites today? I remember seeing something about not nesting tables somewhere.

[DamonHD]

Hi,

The .mobi rules seem to specify XHTML, page weight of no more than 20kB, JPEG images, and other sensible stuff. See:

[w3.org...]

So, WML is dead (I hope).

Rgds

Damon

[edited by: DamonHD at 12:38 pm (utc) on Sep. 21, 2006]

[DoingItWell]

He he he, considering the limitations outlined in the w3 document (thanks for the link) WML is not that far off. But 20kb per page including images - that's more of a limit than the 120 px screenwidth. Not because of the markup, but the graphics. Need to find an image program that does a good job compressing images.

I don't see any mention of the one great feature in WML, click-to-dial links?

I'm not sure how to read the style-sheet support req. - css must be inside the document itself, no external stylesheets?

[DamonHD]

Hi,

I *never* do CSS in external files anyway, because in the case that the CSS file fails to load though the main doc did (and believe me, it happens to me all the time on otherwise-excellent sites such as The Regisiter and even /.) the HTML looks stuuupid and may be unusable. And unless the CSS file was substantial the actual transfer savings (allowing for the extra overhead of an initial separate CSS file fetch) are not that big.

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Hi DoingItWell,

These 4 domains that you are getting... Do you have to have a compliant site up and ready for when it goes live to stay within .mobi Ts&Cs?

Rgds

Damon

[DoingItWell]

No, I have one wml-site running which I'll convert - that's the "serious" site. The rest are more a chance to try out some ideas. But nothing ready yet - I still need to familiarize myself with the xhtml version and css1 again - know just how much the markup restrictions will limit me. I also need to check my apache to be sure it will handle the pages correctly. Right now I'm putting content from a recent trip out on websites and need to get that done before I can begin to have fun.

[Lexur]

Thanks for the link.

I think with these recommendations and some basic XHTML rules (W3 XHTML [w3.org]) I can begin to develop my .mobi site.

I will back here with my tests and results.

[DoingItWell]

Well, this should be easy - the XHTML is extremely close to how I do things on regular websites already.

Now how do we get google to create 100px wide ads? :-)

[DamonHD]

Hi,

Isn't this the new G "mobile" ad? I'm certainly keen to give them a go as both an advertiser and a publisher...

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Hi Y'All,

I've put in a couple of "landrush" names.

Open season in ~3hrs I think? Or am I still horribly confused by all the conflicting sets of dates out there?

Let's see what happens. B^>

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Hi,

This looks like a useful URL for anyone now trying to actually build their .mobi domain! (Assuming that you didn't get it all done in the last 5 minutes...)

[pc.mtld.mobi...]

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Hi,

I apparently got my two .mobi domains, so I'll put up holding pages tomorrow if I can!

Kewl.

Rgds

Damon

[DoingItWell]

Just got back from Berlin - thanks for reminding me, I checked and I got all 4 domains! Much easier than the recent .eu mess. Need to work fast now...

[net_rambler]

>What are typical prices for the (non-premium/reserved) domains?

I preodered on Sunday two *.mobi damain names at Godaddy and got them yesterday. It costed me ~$120 for two years, two domains...
Godaddy had no less years, only one choice by now 2 years.

Message from Godaddy said that it will try to accuire those name for me when market is open - 26 Sep..

Then yesterday I saw that I already got them, then changed DNS and saw template pages from my sites after 20 minutes!

I work at Ericsson with mobile Internet and our marketers also say that WAP1/2 is almost dead, so preferable way is design in XHTML with CSS1.0 (mobiles do not support CSS2.0)...

Dreamweaver supports XHTML well and I use it.

By the way here:
[pc.mtld.mobi...]

you can find templates for your site with smalles screen and bigger one. Also good recommendations what is good to do and what is not.
Navigation is a key question on small sites. Read there more

[DamonHD]

Hi,

I work at Ericsson with mobile Internet and our marketers also say that WAP1/2 is almost dead...

Almost as good as a doctor's signature on the death certificate: thank goodness!

Rgds

Damon

[DoingItWell]

net_rambler, how do you set up links for right button and left button action on a mobile with xhtml?

Yeah, wap is pretty much dead. I headed an experience exchange group here which included some great heads, but our research showed that the dealers in the mobile shops themselves didn't know anything about how to use WAP, and consequently never mentioned it to people buying the mobiles. Now we switch to xhtml instead of wap - but will this make the mobile dealers start showing their customers how to use it? I'm frankly somewhat pessimistic.

[net_rambler]

>how do you set up links for right button and left button action on a mobile with xhtml

I agree that with WAP you get more posibilities for handling of buttons in mobile, but the problem I see that it was widely accepted by developers... The protocol can be very excellent but if nobody will use it or almost nobody, what is benefit? VHS won over other better formats (do not remember all the names)...

Great thing with XHTML is that one content with different CSSs can be displayed on different displays... do not forget about Pocket PCs, Palm Pilots, smartphones, etc.. that is also fast growing class...

Ericsson has product that names "Mobile Internet Enabler Proxy" which had name before like "WAP proxy"... It resides between GSM network and the Internet and send its content to mobiles.

The name was changed two years ago by strongest request of Ericsson marketers, because the word "WAP" smelled old bad fish :-) from operators point of view :-) They did not want to buy that product. But Enabler is very popular and installation base increases very fast :-)

I think the same will happen with WAP2.0... Some sites will use it, but most of designers will use XHTML and take over by ammount of sites...

One thing more is better with XHTML that it is similar to HTML and does not require much learning...

[net_rambler]

>how do you set up links for right button and left button action on a mobile with xhtml

people with Macs used one button mice for years and they survived, I think many problems can be solved with good navigation system on pages...

[jordan5150]

I tried the template from
[pc.mtld.mobi...] . Loaded it onto my server and when I went to it I get the message that the page does not exist. If I change the extension from .xhtml to .html it works fine. My question is do I have to do something different on the server side to have xhtml pages show? Thanks

[DoingItWell]

Yes, your server need sto have a MIME definition for the XHTML format. Reminds me to check my own server - anyone got the line needed in the mime.types under httpd.conf for Apache? I have this line:

application/xhtml+xml xhtml xht

But I remember seeing something different in a forum on mobiles.

Edit: Added example.

[edited by: DoingItWell at 4:40 pm (utc) on Sep. 27, 2006]

[DamonHD]

Hi

For my Tomcat 4.x server I set the MIME type to be application/xhtml+xml which seems to work for IE6 and FF1.5 and the Opera embedded in my Nokia Communicator.

Rgds

Damon

[jordan5150]

Their site is hosted on godaddy. Do you know if I can make these changes on the control panel?

[DamonHD]

Hi,

Kewl! I have my .mobi site up and running. Not totally beautiful, and I've really got to rethink it to make it truely useful, but it's there and validating and working on the [emulator.mtld.mobi...] emulators, and with 20,000 pages of (reduced!) content from my main site visible in the .mobi format...

Typical page weight: ~1kB test + ~2kB image.

Rgds

Damon

[DoingItWell]

Nice, Damon, wish it was me. My registrar for some reason won't give me access to changing the DNS info so I can't get the domains pointed to my server. And I'm going away for 2 weeks tomorrow, so it's going to be a while yet. :-/

Re: Godaddy - I don't think that you can do that kinda changes via the control panel, it's a server setting. But I found the xhtml entry as one of the defaults in my apache server setup, and if you're on a linux server with Godaddy then they've probably already got the xhtml mime type set. One good way to find out - try if it works?

[Lexur]

I have registered two domains and I uploaded the sample sites and it's working properly now.

Now I'm working with our CMS; my core idea is to build a .mobi site with the same contents (mostly news) than our main site (with reduced headlines, without graphics, using icons and so on).

...will this make the mobile dealers start showing their customers how to use it? I'm frankly somewhat pessimistic.

I think that if you want your piece of cake or the future .mobi market you must assume the work of show to YOUR users how to set up their mobile to view your site with your contents. Once .mobi becomes popular, dealers will show to buyers how to setup their new .mobi AOL (Hotmail, Yahoo!...) accounts.

==========================

By the way, we are now the new pioneers and I rememembered my first steps in the web so I want to ask you: what about .mobi link exchange? Let's do it!

[edited by: Lexur at 6:08 am (utc) on Oct. 2, 2006]

[net_rambler]

to DoingItWell:

>myme.types
>application/xhtml+xmlxhtml xht

also in httpd.conf file "index.xhtml" must be added to "DirectoryIndex":

<IfModule mod_dir.c>
DirectoryIndex index.html index.xhtml
</IfModule>

[net_rambler]

to DoingItWell regarding:

> net_rambler, how do you set up links for right button and left button action on a mobile with xhtml?

It was a while your question wasasked and today I found right answer to your question... I found the answer on one tutorial:

"You cannot program softkeys in XHTML MP. An alternative is to make use of the accesskey attribute. The accesskey attribute is used to specify a keypad shortcut. Anchor links and submit buttons support the accesskey attribute. This is an example:

<a accesskey="1" href="part1.xhtml">XHTML MP Tutorial Part 1</a><br/>
<a accesskey="2" href="part2.xhtml">XHTML MP Tutorial Part 2</a><br/>
<a accesskey="3" href="part3.xhtml">XHTML MP Tutorial Part 3</a>

If the user presses "1" of the keypad, the WAP browser will go to "part1.xhtml" directly. With the accesskey attribute, the user can trigger an action with just one click in an XHTML MP page. This behavior is similar to what can be achieved by softkeys."

So, I assume for the left and right buttons character probably will be "<" and ">" because according to XHTML MP:
accesskey (Character) uses character...