I guess it has been about 3 years ago I started working with the mobi domains. For my windshield repair business, it seemed like a natural fit. After all if you’re out on the road and you get a chip on your windshield, you could get the information you need on your cell phone.
I knew though, that there was one weakness to the mobi domain; it was a website that could be set up with a sub-page written for mobile devices. Some examples of an alternative way to create mobile content would be, ”m.example.com” or “example.com/mobile”.
As I see it, another problem was a host that would provide the program to meet mobi specs. Besides being limited at best, I was faced with either a good price and limited ability, or a high price. To solve the problem, I found an open source that cost nothing as long as I provided the storage. The storage wasn’t an issue as I have 40 gigabyte of storage through my company’s website host, not to mention several hundred gigabyte of bandwidth each month. When you consider, that by mobi specs, a page is limited to 20 kilobytes of data, using my existing host for storage wouldn’t be an issue.
As time has progressed, cell phones have gotten better and can handle a lot more data. This I believe has had an effect on mobi, because the restrictive requirements aren’t needed for the newer smart phones. As a result earlier this year, dot mobi was sold. Based on what I’ve read about the reason for the sale and all of the above issues, this showed me that storm clouds were forming.
Dot tel, another domain, also is a way to provide mobile content at a competitive price. Shortly after the dot tell domains were opened for sale to the public I purchased a dot tel for my windshield repair business and have seen my business grow due to customers using it on their cell phones.
Since the mobi sale, on several occasions I found a portion of all 3 mobi sites I have, didn’t function properly. On every occasion I had to go in and fix code that mysteriously had changed. While I know that the change of ownership of the domain had nothing to do with the code problems, it appears there are more issues.
Recently I received notice that the open source provider of the mobile program would soon be charging for the service. That in itself wouldn’t be a problem, the price being charged is. How ridiculously high? Well consider that the storage and bandwidth is a very small fraction of what I use for a conventional website. Yet the cost to keep my mobi sites up would be nearly 2 ½ times what I pay for my conventional website.
Okay, the question then becomes what should I do with WipeOutMS.mobi. Moving that material to WipeOutMS.tel was one option. Placing the material on OnCell411.tel another site I own that is dedicated to providing information while out on the road was a second choice. I had placed MS information on the mobi version of that website.
After thinking it over I decided to merge the information on WipeOutMS.mobi with OnCell411.mobi and put it on OnCell411.tel. Doing this I believe will create more awareness of multiple sclerosis (MS) and help the cause. A second reason is that to get to MS events you need to travel, and this website is designed for travel.
So what becomes of the old mobi domains? Well I’ve pointed OnCell411.mobi at OnCell411.tel, so if you use OnCell411.mobi you will end up at the new website. WipeOutMS.mobi is another story, efforts to redirect that domain with the current registrar has failed. A transfer to another registrar is taking place which will give me total control of the domain. I expect that to be completed by the coming weekend. Finally when I tested the new website with ready mobi it scored a 4, which means it will still load on most cell phones.
OnCell411.tel is still under development so if you have a problem please let me know. My hope is that this project will bring more MS awareness and more support to find a cure to Wipe Out MS-like diseases like polio has been.
Source:
http://www.wipeoutms.com/blog/_archives/2010/6/28/4565478.html
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