ShareThisBy CLINT SWETT
Thursday, October 19, 2006
More than 75,000 ".mobi" domain names were snapped up this week as officials began taking registrations for the new Internet addresses aimed at cell phones and small mobile devices.
Mobile Top Level Domain, the Irish company behind the dot-mobi addresses, released such names this week as sportsnews.mobi, sun.mobi and other potentially popular addresses that had been held in reserve since registration began last May, said a spokeswoman for MTLD.
On Oct. 11, individuals will be able to register names of their own devising, such as "theirname.mobi."
The dot-mobi suffix was established for Web sites where the content has been especially tailored to display on the tiny screens of cell phones and PDAs.
With more than 1 billion cellular phone users worldwide, the mobile Web is seen as a potentially huge market.
In the first wave of registration that began in May, trademark holders, such as Google, The Weather Channel and Business Week magazine, registered a total of about 13,000 domain names.
More information is available at www.mtld.mobi.
(E-mail Clint Swett at cswett(at)sacbee.com.)
