CircleID

You might have heard us talking lately about our plans to better serve the Small and Medium Sized business segment (SMBs). This group of (often times) locally run businesses has much to gain from the mobile Internet but faces time, money, and resource constraints — preventing them from creating their own mobile web presence. And unfortunately their regular websites are likely not meeting their customers' needs because they haven't been specifically formatted for mobile use. But do you still think mobile-specific sites are just for the big brands?

Well, what if "locals" could access a mobile-friendly website for their favorite pizza place to view the menu to place their take out order while on the go?

Or imagine someone commuting to work on the train and checking the gym's schedule for that evening's classes.

Consider a family driving around looking for a new house on the weekend and being able to view interior photos of the home and its key specifications — right from the mobile website advertised on the sign?

And what if a visiting tourist looking for an emergency dentist could read patient testimonials and find the office from a map?

All of these scenarios help consumers better manage their lives through utility and convenience which in turns helps to drive more business to these small and medium size business owners.

Once SMBs can deliver this kind of value to their customers and reap the rewards, the mobile web will be serving the mass market. And we're not that far away.

dotMobi has been hard at work developing an exciting product using the technology from our Mowser acquisition earlier this year to adapt traditional websites into mobile-friendly sites instantaneously. The product requires no expertise or maintenance from the site owner and does not require any additional hosting account. It's fast, seamless and extremely economical. (And of course, the product does require the use of a .mobi domain name)

We can't reveal all the bells and whistles yet but we're currently in an active beta phase with select registrar partners, with a full release coming soon. The introduction of this product promises to help end users better manage their daily lives using technology in their pockets, deliver additional and new business to SMB owners without significant time or cost, drive usage of mobile web to the masses and, of course, quickly grow the adoption of .mobi domain names to local businesses around the globe.

Watch out for more announcements soon but also keep your eye on your own community businesses… one of them might have your next favorite .mobi site!

About dotMobi

Headquartered in Dublin, dotMobi - a wholly owned subsidiary of Afilias Limited - is a worldwide leader in enabling the development & discovery of quality mobile content through innovative services, in turn helping businesses and individuals reach the world's billions of mobile phone users. dotMobi spurs mobile industry innovation by giving content providers the tools they need to ensure the Web will work on mobile phones with speed, accuracy and relevant content. (Learn More)

Related topics: Domain Names, Mobile, Top-Level Domains