City breaks with dotmobi

Mobile internet domain firm dotmobi is targeting city authorities by announcing the availability of 650 city names followed by the .mobi suffix.

It seems somehow appropriate that the first city to take up the offer should be the Finnish capital Helsinki.

The intention behind the dotmobi initiative is that consumers will be assured that a domain name followed by the .mobi suffix has been optimized for a mobile handset.

“With thousands of .mobi sites now live and more than 600,000 domains registered, consumers now understand that sites built on the .mobi domain give them the freedom to take the internet with them, wherever they go,” said Neil Edwards, CEO of dotMobi.

Operator data plans are heading in the right direction with regards promoting the mobile internet. Undoubtedly, “having the internet on your phone” is gaining greater consumer traction, particularly in light of the leaps and bounds being made in the handset community and with huge marketing pushes from the likes of Apple.

However, it remains to be seen whether there is any call for, or indeed need for, more domain names.

Still, the Helsink authorities seem happy enough with their investment: “Helsinki.mobi has driven traffic and recognition to Helsinki. We are using Helsinki.mobi both as a service for visitors to Helsinki as well as a platform for mobile creativity for our residents and businesses,” said Ismo Rantala of Greater Helsinki Promotion.