Companies need to wake up

Most companies are waking up to the fact that they need a mobile internet presence.

That can come in a variety of forms. Whether they want a ‘lite’ useful site that is quick to load and useful & tailored for mobile users needs. One example is a bank that users can have a full blown site when accessing from a pc, but a mobile user has different needs, atm locators, maps, useful telephone numbers, a clutterfree site etc

Bofa.mobi (Bank of America) is the perfect example of this.

This brings me onto usablenet.com

Now they provide a service where in their own words:

” Usablenet specializes in helping organizations to support users of mobile and assistive technologies for web access. Usablenet has unmatched experience and expertise in addressing the limitations of multiple, disparate devices, browsers, formats, and technologies and providing seamless access to all (types of) web content and services.

Today, Usablenet’s core platforms, Usablenet Mobile, Usablenet Messaging, and Usablenet Assistive are being relied on at over 300 organizations, including many Fortune 500 corporations, to simply and comprehensively achieve mobile web seamlessness and web accessibility.”

Here is a screenshot of their site:

usablenet.com

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Now currently almost all of their clients it seems have autodetect set up so that their mobile customers can access a mobile site. Now that is fine and some of the sites are very nice, however they all seem to be set up so that the sites are riding piggyback on usablenet.com

This means that the traffic benefits the host site, usablenet.com and not the customer. Theoretically they have no dedicated mobile site and even their pc/desktop site loses out on traffic and pageviews etc. Also they lose the opportunity to brand their mobile site which in my opinion is one of the biggest potential losses in adopting this path.

Hertz actively market Hertz.mobi and use this domain but still lose out on some of the areas we already mentioned as on accessing the above url you are redirected to https://mobile.usablenet.com/mt/www.hertz.com/rentacar/index.jsp?targetPage=reservationOnHomepage.jsp&un_jtt_redirect
Interestingly Usablenet have a .mobi site themselves.

Here is a screenshot of it, and it is a very nice site:

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usablenet.mobi

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The policy of adopting the .mobi themselves or any other url come to that, would be best used for the customer too in our opinion, also to aid seo results and rankings.

Here is a sample of the client list which is very impressive. A few are using and promoting their mobile site but can’t help but feel most are missing a great opportunity, and is also a big missed area, of potential clients for .mobi and the potential for branding and owning their ‘own’ sites .

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Be interested in everyones views on this and if there is a way through communication maybe mtld could offer domains where appropriate, maybe usablenet would be interested in changing some things, although of course they don’t have to as they are doing nothing wrong, but unfortunately some time has been lost and many of the names are idle or squatted it would seem.

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Here’s a few from the client list that have their .mobi mobile domains and are using:

ctia.org & ctia.mobi

Viewable on the emulator: ready.mobi/results

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Another site is Amtrak.mobi

Again they have a .mobi site and promote it but when accessing the above url it resolves to http://mobile.usablenet.com/mt/www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage&un_jtt_redirect

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Some companies are really smart and cover all angles it seems .

One such example is Travelocity.mobi

If you access their site from a pc you get: travelocity.com (even if typing in travelocity.mobi)

If you access their site from a mobile device and use the .mobi guarantee of a fast loading compliant mobile site you get this: ready.mobi/results

Usablenet show this url when clicking the ‘Travelocity ‘ link http://mobile.usablenet.com/mt/http://www.travelocity.com/ , so I am guessing the .mobi url will actually take you there, although hard to be certain. Of course the direct navigation process of Travelocity.mobi and for branding purposes and for memorability of course seems the best option.

Interested to hear everyones thoughts. Either way Usablenet are certainly fulfilling a much needed role either way and certainly all companies will need to have a mobile presence.

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Edit:

I found an exception to the rule. American Airlines link is not accessible from the usablenet.com site but is from the usablenet.mobi site.

On clicking the link for their mobile site, you are taken here:  http://mobile.aa.com/mt/www.aa.com/aa/homePage.do?un_jtt_redirect

So, a real mixed bag. At least they are not losing traffic this way and have a subdomain of their main .com site which is fine as is on autodetect.