As North America approaches one of its busiest travel weekends, several new .mobi sites are providing travelers with the information they need while on the road.

Mobile Web sites that use a .mobi Internet address are guaranteed to work on practically all mobile phones, no matter who the mobile operator is. Because of this, several innovative travel services are using a .mobi address to lead the charge in building the mobile travel industry:

• For hotels while on the road, Marriott.mobi provides an ideal starting point for finding Marriott properties or checking existing reservations. Hilton.mobi also helps travelers around the world find accommodations.


• For getting to a destination, Amtrak.mobi is mobile commerce site that provides on-the-go U.S. travelers with a complete range of services, including train status and reservation changes in both English and Spanish.


• To check the weather before reaching a destination, travelers visit weather.mobi, from The Weather Channel Interactive. Along with weather and weather-related news, the site provides maps, pollen counts and information on delays for airports.


• Travelocity.mobi provides full a full set of services for travelers, mirroring the many services its PC-based site provides. Travelers can get information on flights, vacation packages, hotels, cars and cruises, and can book travel via their mobile phones.


• For destination information, hellometro.mobi helps travelers find information on more than 600 cities around the world while ZAGAT.mobi makes ZAGAT Survey's renowned content available on the mobile phone, helping travelers make informed decisions about restaurants, hotels and worldwide.

"ZAGAT Survey has always taken a 'platform agnostic' approach to helping consumers make smart decisions on where to eat, drink, stay or play. We make our content available to them however and wherever they need it," said Nina Zagat, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of ZAGAT Survey. "ZAGAT.mobi is the latest way we are achieving this goal."

The Marriot.mobi, Hilton.mobi and Amtrak.mobi sites were developed by New York-based Usablenet (www.usablenet.com). Jason Taylor, Usablenet's VP of Mobile Products, said, "These three companies use Usablenet mobile, an intelligent proxy that outputs to the .mobi standards, which lead the industry for good mobile site design. In addition, the .mobi address — as in Marriott.mobi — is a sign for users to know that a site will work on their mobile phones."

Neil Edwards, CEO of dotMobi, said, "Mobile sites are a perfect fit for the travel industry to reach people while they're on the road. It's also an excellent match for travelers who are dependent on their mobile device to give them the information they need when they need it. And unlike a site.com/mobile or m.site.com name, the standards behind the .mobi domain guarantee that a site will work on a mobile phone."