Internet For Mobiles "Switched On!"
Dublin, Ireland - mobile Top Level Domain (mTLD), the company behind the new ‘.mobi' (dotmobi) internet domain, published the first in a series of its Switch On! Guides – a web developer's handbook designed to ensure the best possible internet experience for the mobile user.
This consultative edition of the dotmobi Switch On! Web Browsing Guide provides mandatory rules and highly recommended best practices for content developers and mobiles supporting website owners, ensuring that their websites can be optimally accessed by any mobile device.
The dotmobi domain, set for commercial launch this summer, will revolutionise the relationship between the internet and mobile devices by the clear identification of made-for-mobile internet sites and applications.
Most website content and services on the internet today do not work predictably on mobile devices; the result has been slower adoption of the Internet from the mobile consumer. With the dotmobi domain name, consumers on the go will have full confidence that a website or service will work correctly and reliably on their mobile device.
"Building on the recent advancements in enabling technologies for the mobile internet, dotmobi provides users with trusted internet addresses that are optimised for use on mobile devices", said Reinhard Kreft, Global Head of Industry Initiatives and Standards at Vodafone. "We are confident the Switch On! Guides will make the development of dotmobi sites easier. As this will generate considerable amounts of new, high-quality mobile content it will benefit the mobile user and transform the experience of mobile web-browsing worldwide."
Neil Edwards, General Manager of mTLD Ltd, said: "Many existing internet protocols and practices are grounded in desktop PC-oriented services and were not designed with a mobile device in mind, which has led to a less than optimal performance for the end user. The dotmobi guides are designed to preserve the best possible user experience while retaining the open standards-based approach of the internet. Many years of research from world class companies have gone into producing the dotmobi Switch On! Web Browsing Guide."
Ritva Siren, Director, Naming and Addressing, Nokia, said: "Handsets are the 'end point' in mobile internet delivery. They are with you practically everywhere, but so far not sufficiently serviced by internet websites. Nokia is embracing the Switch On! Guides as a core part of the success of internet services for mobiles thus supporting the role of mobiles as an "always-available" information and entertainment device to people around the world."
Backed by the world's leading mobile operators, handset manufacturers and software developers, mTLD has been designated the official worldwide registry for the dotmobi domain, responsible for the provision of complex service discovery instructions within the internet itself.
The Switch On! Guides were developed following global consumer research into the problems facing users when browsing with their mobile devices. The guides are also fully in-line with industry best practices as specified by the World Wide Web Consortium's Mobile Web Initiative (MWI)
The Guides have been developed not only for domain registrants and owners of content and services hosted at other domains, but also for tool vendors and solution providers building and populating dotmobi sites. The consultative dotmobi Switch On! Web Browsing Guide may be found at www.mtld.mobi. mTLD expects the commercial version of the web browsing guide to be available in the third quarter of 2006 along with other guides to support the development of the mobile data services.
mTLD's goal is to establish dotmobi as the natural location on the internet for websites and other internet-based services that have been designed to be accessed through a mobile phone or handheld device. Uniquely among internet names, the dotmobi suffix in website addresses will provide mobile users an instantly recognisable signpost that such sites have been tailor-made for access on a mobile handset.
Many of the companies backing mTLD plan to demonstrate dotmobi-based internet services at 3GSM, the mobile industry's annual conference and exhibition which takes place in Barcelona in February.
SOURCE: mobile Top Level Domain Ltd (mTLD)