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New Net Battle Over ".mobile" Looming

Posted by timothy on Wed Mar 10, 2004 03:57 PM
from the what-about-dot-family dept.
John IPsen writes "A group of big companies, including Nokia, Vodafone and Microsoft, today applied to ICANN to have a new ".mobile" domain in the next round of new Internet domains for connecting phones and PDAs to the Internet. But while they say they aren't aware of any competition, it seems that some others have been preparing their bids for a lot longer and a big battle may be brewing. More here."
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  • by grub (11606) <slashdot@grub.net> on Wednesday March 10 2004, @03:57PM (#8524852) Homepage Journal

    From:.mobile ERROR:"550 Go away, spammer."
    Right where it belongs, along with .biz and .info
    • by G4from128k (686170) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:09PM (#8525014)
      Great, now spammers are going to create exploits for phones and PDAs as relays for their filth. I wonder how many e-mails a zombie Pocket PC can crank out before the the user sees a $10,000 for bandwidth usage? I guess the antivirus indusry will see a nice boost in revenues for AV for Blackberrys, Palms, PocketPCs, Symbian phones, etc.
  • by AtariAmarok (451306) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @03:58PM (#8524858)
    Where's .biloxi and .tuscaloosa ?
  • .mob? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tyler Eaves (344284) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @03:58PM (#8524859)
    Why not continure the 'tradition' of 3 letter TLDS and use .mob? It's even descriptive of the companies trying to push this through...
    • Re:.mob? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Lawbeefaroni (246892) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:00PM (#8524886) Homepage
      And it's a hell of a lot easier to type in on cell phones.

      • Re:.mob? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dietz (553239) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:34PM (#8525322)
        I think the point of this is that you wouldn't NEED to type the TLD. They want to make this TLD the default search domain on mobile devices.

        So, for example, http://google/ would take you to google.mobile on a cell phone.

        That's the impression I got from the article, anyway:
        The application could turn out to be more politically charged than its proponents hope, because the mobile domain is not just another Internet domain like .biz, extending the address space. Instead, it is a new text-based user friendly addressing scheme for phones and mobile devices, which could replace and extend the power of phone numbers - just as the current Internet domain scheme did for numeric Internet addresses, replacing 207.46.245.214 with "microsoft.com", for instance.
      • You said it. To type out ".mobile" on my cell phone takes 16 keystrokes. And that's without the ever present fat fingering! You're look at 10-20 seconds just to tap out that extension.

        Ideally, mobile phones should get special dispensations -- numeric-only URLs, no document extensions, etc. I've written a few WML apps, and the biggest challenge was making them easy to get to via the keypad. Something like tiny url -- concentrating on numbers and the letters a,d,g,j,m,p,t and w -- worked best.
    • Do you really want guys in black suits knocking on your door because you picked the wrong .mob territory?
    • Re:.mob? (Score:3, Insightful)

      or the even more obvious .cell ?
      Or are they saving that for when single cells get their own IPv4 er v6..... v128?
      • Re:.mob? (Score:3, Informative)

        Perhaps because the majority of the English-speaking world calls them "mobile" phones? Only Americans call them "cell" phones.
    • Re:.mob? (Score:4, Funny)

      by System.out.println() (755533) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:09PM (#8525017) Journal
      If they did that flash.mob would be one of the first domains snatched up.
    • Re:.mob? (Score:4, Funny)

      by iminplaya (723125) <iminplayaNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:13PM (#8525073) Journal
      Yes. While setting my spam filters I would go to .mob rules?
  • too long a name (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mgs1000 (583340) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @03:59PM (#8524866) Journal
    Am I the only one who thinks a 5-digit TLD is just too long to type in using the keypad on a cell phone?
  • me first? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bbsguru (586178) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @03:59PM (#8524875) Homepage Journal
    This is too much fun! Can I be the first to register olds.mobile? hupp.mobile? auto.mobile? alexander.calder.mobile.hangs.in.a.museum?? semi.mobile? quasi.mobile.rang.notre.dame.bells? Can the .matic domain be far behind?
  • Uhm... no... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LostCluster (625375) * on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:00PM (#8524885) Homepage
    Mobile devices don't need their own TLD for DNS names. Just what's wrong with with using the existing ones?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:00PM (#8524891)
    Personally I dont think there needs to be another .anything right now. what good is .mobile gonna do? rather than be the next haven for spammers, stupid vhosts, and other useless junk..
  • I'd say .mob would be better but this guy [synergizedsolutions.com] might already own it.
  • by michael path (94586) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:03PM (#8524935) Homepage Journal
    oh yeah. the last thing i need to address from my phone is a longer TLD.

    rcpt to: path@sprint.mbolie^H^H^H^H^H
    501 5.5.6 You're an IDIOT
    CRAP!
    501 5.5.7 That doesn't work either.
    rcpt to: path@sprunt.mlobie^H^H^H^H
    501 5.5.8 Nope. Not even close.
    rcpt to: path@sprint.mobil
    501 5.5.9Try Exxon

    ad nauseum.
  • Verbosity? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by avalys (221114) * on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:04PM (#8524946)
    Is there something wrong with .mbl? I don't see why we have to spell the whole thing out: the existing TLDs are all blissfully concise.

    Long TLDS distract from the domain names themselves: which looks better, www.slashdot.org or www.slashdot.nonprofitorganization?
  • Missing link... (Score:3, Informative)

    by LostCluster (625375) * on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:04PM (#8524950) Homepage
    Anybody notice that the "More here..." article is the same URL as the other link in the summary?
  • Ya know... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by suso (153703) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:04PM (#8524955) Homepage Journal
    They don't need a .mobile domain to connect their phones and PDAs to the internet, don't they? ;-)

    Like it will matter, people will just continue to find unique domains and register stuff like

    myphonenumber.com
    myphonenumber.net
    myphonenum ber.org
    myphonenumber.biz
    myphonenumber.cc
    myph onenumber.tv
    myphonenumber.de
    myphonenumber.mx

    Because, what if, forbid, someone just randomly types in myphonenumber.mx, but doesn't try myphonenumber.com. Oh no!

  • by Ich Bin Zu (737102) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:06PM (#8524969) Homepage
    I don't know if it is a good idea. Our company website has the .ws domain. When I give people our website address, they always ask: dot what? becasue they always expect .com or .net.
  • by pbug (728232) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:06PM (#8524979) Homepage
    According to the article this namesapce is strictly for mobile devices. The actual TLD has not decided yet. This is going to be a namespace for your mobile number for instance bob.jones.cingular.mobile will be your mobile phone or wifi address. Well let us see how this one plays out.
  • These companies need to do anything they can do to get more mobile data use out of their networks, hardware and software. Margins on voice traffic are dropping and will continue to drop, hastened by VoIP, so how to make up for lost revenue? Pretty soon a large chunk of high-margin international calling traffic will be VoIP, which basically means flat rate, which means... no more big bucks for ATT, etc. By selling new services, like wireless data the carriers can save themselves (they hope). Another problem for Nokia and friends is that handsets are starting to be manufactured in China, and Nokia will not be able to build plain old voice handsets at competitive prices, so it needs to get away from the commoditized market of voice handsets, which means it needs better entertainment abilities, which means wireless data. A TLD could really fit into that. The wireless web has great potential but consumer awareness is poor, because there aren't any good ways for consumers to identify mobile content and there aren't any easy ways for websites to produce mobile content without learning a bunch of new technologies. Well, there are some ways [chiralsoftware.net] to do it now...
  • Why do we need more TLDs? Especially for commercial uses when the mega-corps already insist that if they own a .com domain then it is their right to have the .ca, .biz, .any ... domains aswell. Just seems like more wasted money on squatting an litigation.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:09PM (#8525012)
    I hear the American Thumb Rehabilitation Association is the real force behind this domain name.
  • by tekrat (242117) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:13PM (#8525072) Homepage Journal
    Shado.mobile

    Now, that might be a cool URL after all. I say we also register a TLD named "Alpha" so we can have moonbase.alpha

    Hrmmm. You think Gerry Anderson would mind?

  • Six letter TLDs? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by thedillybar (677116) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:16PM (#8525110)
    This is very annoying and not neccessary.

    "8005551212@messaging.nextel.com" works fine for me, and I don't think we need a ".mobile" until someone shows a very good reason to make one.

    1) It's a lot of letters to type.
    2) http://nextel.mobile/ just looks weird as hell.
    3) It will break some applications (more than .info already did possibly)
    4) I don't believe that it's necessary (or even convenient for a significant number of people)

  • by JessLeah (625838) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:21PM (#8525175)
    Why should a single corporate entity control an entire TLD?

    I can 'kinda' understand if Microsoft wanted .microsoft or Nokia wanted .nokia, but even then-- why waste the resources of the top-level DNS servers for something which will only serve to benefit one company?

    This is absolutely disgusting. It's bad enough that Verisign/NetworkSolutions/whatever has such control over .COM/.NET and over the DNS system in general (kof kof SITEFINDER kof kof), but now they want to start giving entire freaking TLDs over to companies wholesale?

    This is bullshit!
      • The author is probably one of those new-school, semi-computer-literate thinkers who has been slowly coaxed into believing that large corporations are wholly benign entities which have the public's best interests in mind. Many people nowadays seem to honestly believe that. They seem to believe the snazzy corporate slogans like "GE: We Bring Good Things to Life", and honestly believe that the megacorps are out to help humanity. (Ever been to EPCOT Center in Disneyworld? It's all about that "benevolent corpora
        • by Dun Malg (230075) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @06:39PM (#8526697) Homepage
          They seem to believe the snazzy corporate slogans like "GE: We Bring Good Things to Life", and honestly believe that the megacorps are out to help humanity.

          Hey, GE put as much care and attention into designing and building GAU-8 30mm [fas.org] and M-61 20mm [fas.org] multibarrel cannon systems as they put into refrigerators and dishwashers. Customer satisfaction is important to their business. If your food spoiled, or you dishes came out dirty, or the T-72 tank you were shooting at from your A-10 warthog didn't explode, would you buy another fridge, dishwasher, or GAU-8 Avenger 30mm cannon from GE again? They're a real people company because they have to be!

  • by Supp0rtLinux (594509) <Supp0rtLinux@yahoo.com> on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:21PM (#8525183) Homepage
    As the article points out, its 45K to apply and well over 1 million to complete the process and get everything setup. But what about the individual and openness? I for one would like my own personal andrew.mobile... or maybe even andrew.myisp.mobile. After all, I have number portability now. Why not also have domain portability in regards to my wireless equipment? Wouldn't it be nice to switch providers... whether of my 3G network or my 802.11b, but keep my andrew.myisp.mobile and my phone number?

    Also... not sure how many others were bothered by the presence of M$ on the committee. Don't they have enough of their toes in enough industries? Now they want to be part of the control of the TLD for the mobile space??? Add up the net-worth of all the companies involved and M$ has the most $$$ which means they have the most strongarm potential. This isn't meant as a flame war, but rather a call for each of us to submit our opinions to ICANN about the presence of M$ (who isn't really a telco-type company... but just a software company) on the committee. If M$ is going to be onboard (as a s/w company), so should Trolltech and Palm and some of the other more *open* vendors who's software are also used in mobile devices. Otherwise, all I see is yet another entity that M$ can bully its way around, not to mention the fear of the .mobile root server possibly running on Windows???

    The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers [nccomp.com]
  • by yelvington (8169) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:33PM (#8525319) Homepage
    Phone numbers already are globally unique, so there is no need to have second-level domain names within a mobile TLD. Having carriers or hardware makers involved is only counterproductive. We don't need any more vendor lock-in opportunities.

    On the other hand ... globally available free access to MY cellphone for the purpose of delivering messages sounds like an open door for yet more spam. Phonenumber.mbl is just too easy.

  • by JoeShmoe (90109) <askjoeshmoe@hotmail.com> on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:43PM (#8525407)
    ICANN charges a non-refundable $45,000 for an application, and the total cost of developing a proper bid is reckoned to run into millions

    What better way to foster innovation and good ideas than to make sure the barrier to entry is so unbelievably high that even three of the largest corporations on the planet --combined-- are thought to have "barely" a chance at floating a few new letters through cyberspace?

    There's articifical scarcity, then there is intellegence scarcity. Five years after ICANN's creation, we still have (for all intents and purposes) no new TLDs. How many meetings in Hawaii and Barbados has that taken?

    If Microsoft wants .mobile, guess what, they can add it to Internet Explorer and the new TLD will exist literally overnight. I'd actually be in favor of this horrible break of standards because it would teach everyone a valuable lesson that these precious root servers are modern feudalism and we serfs should wise up and go form our own government and let the 14 non-elected lords go out and dig up their own turnips.

    -JoeShmoe
    .
  • Scam (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jesus IS the Devil (317662) on Wednesday March 10 2004, @04:56PM (#8525582)
    This is just another scam to get money from suckers' wallets. We have more than enough domain names as is. Domain registries are good money makers. After all, they're basically selling hot air. There's practically no overhead other than setting up a few DNS servers.

    Dot coms will always rule.