The rise of m - in the face of .mobi
Via Russell Beattie, I just learned a new trend. Websites are increasingly giving the URL for their mobile-optimized versions in m.* format, instead of *.mobi format, which was supposed to conquer the world.
Examples: m.yahoo.com, m.youtube.com, m.live.com, m.ask.com, m.clusty.com, etc.
I think there are two reasons:
1) Less clicks (typing m.youtube.com requires 6 less clicks than www.youtube.mobi)
2) You don’t have to register a separate domain
Ok, Google still uses URL formats like www.google.com/m, www.google.com/reader/m, and mobile.google.com, and Microsoft formats like mobile.msn.com but I’m sure they’ll be quick to spot the trend.
Anyway, if this trend is real and going to continue, I think we should reconsider having “www” as default URL in S60 Browser:
What do you think? Will one of the mobile URL formats become a de-facto standard? Which one?
Hi,
Actually Google already has m.gmail.com for reading your mails via mobile browser.
I do agree the www should be removed, several normal websites don’t start with www either.
I’m glad to see m. coming along well.
m.twitter.com
I agree the »www« should be reconsidered - most of the time, I do not need it…
Or even better have the prefix as a selectable option.
Even worse, when You want to delete the “www.”, You have to first enter another letter, as pressing the c key first will prompt the dialogue for deleting the currently marked bookmark.
Personally I would prefer “mobile.”, simply because it is easier to understand for the average Joe, self-descriptive, if You will, but of course “m.” is indeed much shorter, a huge advantage when using a mobile phone.
And as to “.mobi” - that’s really rather unnecessary and just a phony way of making more money with registrations - sooner or later all good websites should auto-detect mobile devices anyhow (in that perfect world I am imagining), and redirect them, right?
I agree Jukka with his suggestion that the prefix should be selectable. However yu should be able to toggle between the prefixes fast and with ease.
Opera has that option in the joystick. Where could we have it in the S60 Browser?
Tommi, inserting the URL it’s a pain.
So I prefer to use m.site.com or mobile.site.com
The other domain has 3/2 letters, while the extension for mobile is four (.mobi).
That’s insane
For mobile-optimised sites I agree m.* is a good URL scheme, but as for making m.* the default… I’m not so sure. I’m willing to bet that there are way more sites out there beginning with http://www. than m. and since the S60 browser’s big selling point is that you get the full desktop experience on your phone surely there should be more of a bias towards full (ie. www) versions of sites anyway.
Please remove the www as a default prefix! There is no reason to include the www except to promote people leaving a worthless group of 3 letters before their domains.
If you ever come across a web site these days that requires the www to resolve, someone should have words with the web master. It’s simple, set your dns so that http://www.* will resolve, then set the primary record to your actual domain. This will keep the site alive for people who instinctively type the dubdubdub, and people who have it automatically added by certain web browsers
Any time I come across a site that requires the www to resolve, I cringe. In my mind, letters before the primary domain should be sub-domains (like the m. for mobile, or finance.yahoo, or reader.google) - I’m thinking about actually setting http://www. on my domain to point to a page detailing the history of the world wide web, with a click through to the real content.
Sorry for the rant, slight pet peeve…
I agree with Jukka about it being a selectable option, and even for the ‘http://’ part… I have never liked it in on a normal computer, let alone on a mobile phone… I would suggest assuming the ‘http://’ unless otherwise specified (eg. if someone types in ‘https://’ or ‘ftp://’).
Most sites I go to now either don’t use the www at all or redirect to the non-www site. I also find it hard to call URLs to people without the www, as I find myself having to say “no www” all the time… I wish people would realise that it’s not compulsory.
Hello!
I think if the full browsers like the S60 browser will be successfull, there will not be a big need for “mobile” sites for long. (also see the news about the HP people and their flexible screens…) Maybe efforts should be focused around automatic recognition of the mobile browser - as already was said before here - and bringing the full web to mobile devices more efficiently and faster (e.g.:timely browser updates ;-). Automatic recognition is nice, BUT in every case there should be the option to switch to full web.
I think the m. and/or .mobi format could get accepance quickly if the mobile web gets stuck in the stone age in some perspective. The greatest risk I see for “getting stuck” is the web video road map for MS formats and flash. I do not see a quick path for mobile web browsers to reach their laptop- desktop counter parts in a reasonably short time frame. My guess is 2-3 years before it will start to happen.
In such case I could imagine mobile web domains - sub domains - to flourish for 5-10 years.
Don’t you expect Web 3.0 to change the internet landscape? Both the semantic web and the 3.0 S60 browser…
Regards!
Aron
Stop fighting against .mobi and spreading wrong information (counting http://www.?)!
The best choice is .MOBI; m.name.com is also alright by me if you don’t got your .mobi
-BOFA.mobi
-MSN.mobi
-Fordca.mobi
-Paramount.mobi
-Forbes.mobi
-Foxnews.mobi
and many, many, many other smart companies know how to reach the customer the easiest way on the fly.
Don’t be arrogant or frusrated for some reason.
I agree that there should be a simple way to pull up a list of prefixes. I do like the m. better than .mobi, as well. As someone mentioned, m. is included, as it’s just a subdomain. .mobi is just another useless expense.
.mobi is dead.
.mobi is alive more then ever!!!
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb534674.htm
Marketeers love .mobi!!!
Ciao
my opinion is to use whatever URL makes sense and it’s thought well, like number of clicks and so on.
Just as an example look at Yahoo GO
http://us.get.go.yahoo.com
I wonder who is the person that decided for this URL!!
Alessandro
I think mobile sites will end up being the most popular way to access the internet on small screen devices - It becomes pretty annoying to constantly scroll and zoom around a full webpage.
But some people do want that choice, so it seems like companies will not automatically redirect mobile devices away from a full .com site
Therefore it seems that the .mobi domain may be the best way to advertise that a site is mobile friendly - even if only used for a redirect to one of the many variations that a company can use for its mobile site.
eg
m.domain.com
mobile.domain.com
domain.com/mobile/
Remembering ‘domain.mobi’ seems easier than trying to remember a URL with extra dots or forward slashes.
(.mobi sites do not need the http://www. prefix)