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March 16, 2004
Give me what I need!
Tom has posted an article over on Mobitopia arguing the case against specialized mobile domains (i.e. a .mob domain). And while I can see why mobile operators would want this - I think one of Tom's arguments is especially true:
Saying a service is "mobile" doesn't tell you anything about which "version" of mobile it is: WAP? XHTML? cHTML? If you plan to automatically determine which version you're going to deliver, that's great: but in this case you don't need a separate domain name. Just hand out "futureplatforms.com" and redirect as necessary.
Using a framework like Cocoon to build your mobile application even removes the need to redirect. You can use Cocoon components to recognize the device and return whatever content is needed. So the user just types in the same URI (like: http://www.mydomain.com/hello) and receives whatever format his particular browser requires at that time. No need to remember different URIs depending on whether you happen to be mobile or not. What could be easier.
Posted by Matthew at March 16, 2004 07:25 PM