CYBERSPACE — Registration has begun for .mobi, the new sponsored top level domain which will feature websites and content formatted for mobile devices, and the initial flock of registrants is snatching up a variety of entertainment-related domains, many demonstrating an early focus on a youthful market.At the moment Mobile Top Level Domain (also known as “dotMobi”), the Dublin-based company that was awarded the contract for maintenance and operation of .mobi is currently accepting registrations only from members of wireless industry trade associations (including wireless carriers), mobile device manufacturers, and major media companies that wish to provide a mobile version of their current websites. Registration opened Monday, but will only exclusively open to the groups named above until August 28th, when registration will be opened to the general public.
Although no American mobile companies have invested in dotMobi, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal, all such companies have registered .mobi equivalents of their .com names – including verizon.mobi, cingular.mobi and sprint.mobi.
The new domain names are not cheap; a trademarked name runs $140 per year, and “generic” names go for $45 a year. dotMobi says the higher prices are, in part, designed to discourage domain-squatting.
According to MacWorld.com, among the first names to be snatched were a large number of domains relating to cartoon shows, including thundercats.mobi, scooby-doo.mobi and flinstones.mobi.
dotMobi is doing more than just offering to be a registrar for the domain; the company is also responsible for establishing “best practices” and style guides which will govern .mobi sites. These guidelines are not idle suggestions; registrants who do not abide by the rules might find their domain name pulled down by dotMobi.
