This post is guest-authored by Carlie Lawson...she follows up on a series of posts on the very emotionally charged .mobi discussion that has dominated forums since its launch...  

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As those who follow the Internet well know, the virtual world changes constantly, and sometimes those changes seem to happen overnight. Remember our multi-part .mobi series published in April 2008? Well since that time, the ..mobi chapter has evolved...evolved significantly as the senior folks at mTLD continue to mine the mobile web for the gold buried somewhere in thar hills... 

To best provide readers with a detailed look at these developments, we present a second two-part series on dot mobi. In an exclusive interview, Amy Mischler, Vice President of Identity and Brand Services at mTLD (aka dot mobi) addresses the company’s new initiatives to address current concerns of slow sales and low auction sales amounts.

.mobi’s bipolar identity

While other top level domains (TLDs) have only a traditional role to play, mTLD finds itself with a bipolar identity. Mischler says the company doubles as a traditional domain registrar/manager, and a marketing consortium with the goal of promoting the best possible .mobi experience for the end user.

The goal of .mobi is to “seed the mobile landscape with quality sites,” she says. The company works to develop the identity and brand recognition of the domain extension. She describes her work as the evangelism of the extension’s benefits and best practices in mobile development.

An evangelical mission

A major part of her evangelical mission is to “help put an end to convention confusion.”

As it stands, developers must choose from wap, msite, /mobile, and .mobi. The plethora of conventions forces users to search for content designed specifically for their phone. Of course, some search engines have created mobile only searches and/or mark mobile results with a special icon when a search is conducted from a cellular device. For example, Mischler called Google’s mobile search a “good start but, not a permanent solution” in pointing users to content made for cell phones.

She said redirection is also not a permanent solution, arguing that the user should be able to choose which site to see. For example, Bank of America hosts a mobile site which differs completely from its .com. Recognizing that at different times, users will want different services on the go, Bank of America gives its users a choice of .com or .mobi.

She firmly believes using a .mobi provides the best solution, especially since it increases a site’s “findability”. Since most search engines check registry and/or zone files first, using a .mobi gives higher rank in a set of mobile search results than using somebrand dot com/mobile, or m.somebrand.com. Considering the fierce fight for the top spot on search results pages, one might think that alone would be enough to convert the non-believers, but it’s not. So, mTLD set about learning to better target their message.

What a girl wants

The domain manager went to the source to learn what users want, and the end users surveyed told dot mobi they want utility. Due to proprietary data restrictions Mischler can’t disclose specifics but, dot mobi has continued research in what users want to see on the mobile Web with respect to subject matter.

Initial research results have led the vice president to believe that .mobi media sites aren’t the way to drive user to the mobile Web. Mischler says providing useful content to consumers will spur quick growth of .mobi. Users express most interest in areas such as weather, finance, and location services.

“I think utility will drive development of .mobi more than entertainment,” Mischler said.

Entertainment must have its place though, or the nearly 20,000 visitors using Mocospace as this was written were imagined. One could also point to the popularity of MySpace’s mobile presence, as well as the mobile versions of Facebook and YouTube, as a testament to the population’s yearn for constant entertainment. Either way, there are many in the mobile world waiting patiently for large scale development to occur.

.mobi for sale

Domainers heavily invested in thousands of dot mobi domains in hopes of huge payoffs when the extension takes off with a significant focus in the purchase of three letter and premium domains. But the youthful domain extension hasn’t met with domainers’ expectations which have largely been based upon their existing experiences with its older sibling, .com, now in its 20s. Domainers worry there have been too few six figure sales of .mobi, and nothing in the million dollar range yet. They point to domainer Rick Schwartz’s October 2006 purchase of flowers.mobi for $200,000 as the biggest documented sale yet. 2007 produced four more six figure .mobi sales, according to DN Journal's Year-To-Date Top 100, which organizes the highest reported annual domain sales in all extensions. Mischler dismisses those concerns though.

“Given the number of premium names we’ve released, we’ve actually done really well.”

She pointed out that at the last T.R.A.F.F.I.C. sales auction all of .mobi’s names sold, something that can not be said for other domain extensions auctioned.

And although dot mobi began with the belief that high visibility customers would bring name recognition to .mobi, the company has expanded that notion to include the proletariat. It’s new initiative focuses on development at the mass market level, i.e. mom and pop shops and individuals. Since those small businesses and the average Joe won’t have a team of Web developers on staff, .mobi has created partnerships to develop site builders like site.mobi.

But the extension still faces a major obstacle in the legacy perceptions of its pricing. Mischler argues that .mobi has “very competitive” prices, but that doesn’t show when users visit many domain registrars. She explains that many registrars deeply discount perennial favorite .com, then make up the discount with other extensions. This encouraged the company to begin working with registrars on marketing and pricing .mobi. Two initiatives Mischler hopes will improve end users prices are registrar promotions and rebates.

Providing value added services as part of extension ownership is another way to mitigate the cut rates on .com. The company encourages purchase of .mobi by providing users with free tools such as dev.mobi, ready.mobi, site builders, a free e-book on marketing, and the newly introduced Device Atlas, an online database of mobile phone specifications from every major cellular manufacturer, not just the ones partnered with .mobi.

The company sees Device Atlas as an integral seed in the growth of .mobi. and the mobile Internet by providing a free, comprehensive database to drive quality content development.

“Dot com only had to develop for maybe three browsers," Mischler explains. “The mobile Web’s much more diverse.”

It’s too soon for statistics on actual adoptions due to Device Atlas, but the company did see quick reaction to its release - an unexpected reaction at that. Mischler says a number of partners have expressed interest in embedding the database into their existing products, including Device Analytics.

Conclusion

mTLD seems committed to its evangelical missions of creating a better user experience on the mobile Web, as well as driving further adoption of mobile content. The company that once focused on the big boys to populate the Web with .mobis, has begun to recognize the equal importance of the little guy. By lending a hand to the average Joe in the areas of pricing, developing, designing, and marketing, dot mobi has take the first steps of repositioning itself. Only time will tell whether it’s enough to cause the domain extension to convert the masses.

But Mischler believes. She sees a future world where users will be as likely to say, “Check out their .mobi.”, as they now suggest .coms to friends. In a moment of unbridled optimism she adds...“in five years I see us as the next de facto standard of the Internet.”

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Many thanks to Hien Tran and Kevin Cabeliza of A & R Edelman for their assistance in the development of this series.