A new Internet top-level domain suffix for mobile web sites has been approved by ICANN.
The approval of the .mobi domain should spur creation of web pages and sites optimized for mobile web devices, according to a laundry list of supporting handset makers and technology companies.
Ericsson, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Samsung joined Microsoft and Nokia in requesting the new domain suffix. A meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in Luxembourg approved the .mobi domain on Monday.
With more mobile content will come more demand for mobile phones that can view it, a boost that will help drive sales of higher-end phones. That could also spur demand for operating systems like Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 release.
Approval of the .mobi domain hasn’t come without controversy. No less an authority than Tim Berners-Lee, father of the World Wide Web, has blasted the platform dependence of a potential .mobi domain.
“The Web must operate independently of the hardware, software or network used to access it, of the perceived quality or appropriateness of the information on it, and of the culture, and language, and physical capabilities of those who access it,” says Mr. Berners-Lee.
Breaking out content to a .mobi domain means the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI, generally what users know as a URL), useful as a reference when discussing Web sites, may not work well outside of mobile browsers.
“It is fundamentally useful to be able to quote the URI for some information and then look up that URI in an entirely different context,” says Mr. Berners-Lee.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
