Dot mobi (or .mobi) domain extensions are relatively new, with the first publicly traded site appearing on the market at the end of 2006, but already some distinct advantages and disadvantages to the new domain extension have already been identified. The main disadvantages of dot mobi domain extensions stems from their main criticism, that the .mobi domain extension is in effect creating two separate world wide webs that are device dependent.

But first, let’s take a look at some of the advantages of this new domain extension, the dot mobi. The main advantage of a domain with the .mobi extension is that the individual page will already be customized for the mobile phone’s browser, which eliminates the need for reconfiguring existing domains to be compatible or the need for expensive browsers that download and shrink the website automatically.

While sites with .com domain extensions can be optimized for viewing on mobile phone screens, the fact is that the vast majority do not redo their domain for the smaller screen size of mobile phones, diminished textual content, and other input/output options and domain design factors. So sites with a .mobi domain extension are already created with these features in mind, which is a distinct advantage to the end user and developer alike.

As mentioned above, the main disadvantage of dot mobi domain extensions is the simple fact that the sites are actually creating two separate internets, dependent entirely on the device used to access them. The repercussions of this disadvantage are numerous. Companies would need to create separate websites for the PC internet and the mobile phone internet, which would be great for website developers, but not so great for the company’s bottom line, who would have to register and maintain two pages instead of one.

An additional disadvantage of .mobi domain extensions is that on most mobile phones with telephone keypads for text entry, typing dot mobi into the browser takes almost a dozen keystrokes, which is more than the dot come domain extension. An unfortunate oversight, but many mobile phones have smart text now where what a user types repetitively the phone will auto-complete. Also, more and more phones now are coming standard with full qwerty keyboards.