The Times newspaper, arguably the finest newspaper in the world has gone mobile!

Able to bring you news and updates on the move. Visit http://timesmobile.mobi

Here is what they say:

Our free mobile internet service brings you up-to-the-minute world, business and sports news straight to your mobile – whenever you want it and wherever you are.
To access the complete mobile service, text Times to 86626 or go to timesmobile.mobi on your phone’s browser:

Times Mobile has added some exciting new features and improved the site to offer the best experience to users of the latest internet-capable mobile phones.

Our new, high-quality mobile internet service brings you news and reviews from The Times, The Sunday Times and Times Online while on the move. It offers:

* Latest news from the Times, Sunday Times, Times Online

* Full Business coverage

* Full Sports coverage

* Entertainment news and reviews

* Real-time Football scores

* Searchable Jobs listings

How do you access this service? Easy. Simply text the word Times to 86626 and we’ll send you a message with a simple link to the service. Alternatively, you can navigate direct to timesmobile.mobi using your mobile phone’s internet browser.

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Also today i was scanning yesterdays Times newspaper and saw in the business section they are promoting their .mobi website in their newspaper and alongside unrelated articles in the business section.

See belows scan:

The Times also have a users guide page where timesmobile.mobi gets mentioned over and over, and they emphasise the point that www. is not required.

Link to User Guide

*There is also a chance to tell them what you think of their .mobi service on the page , fire away!………………………………………

Sunday Times Business Section Page 9, June 8th, Times promote their .mobi website with an advertisement almost the size of an A4 piece of paper.

This may not seem much but The Times could easily command a 5 figure sum for an advert this size in the Business section of arguably the only remaining top quality Newspaper in the UK.

See Below for scan:

Interestingly it is in association with Cisco!

investecir.mobi

Investec have launched their mobile website at investecir.mobi

If you note at the bottom of the .mobi site they promote their .com site as their ‘desktop site’

I think we will see this more and more, and the usefulness and brandability of .mobi

About Investec:

Investec is an international, specialist banking group that provides a diverse range of financial products and services to a select client base.Founded as a leasing company in Johannesburg in 1974, we acquired a banking licence in 1980 and were listed on the JSE Limited in 1986. In July 2002, we implemented a Dual Listed Companies structure with linked companies listed in London and Johannesburg. A year later, we concluded a significant empowerment transaction, where our empowerment partners collectively acquired a 25.1% stake in the issued share capital of Investec Limited.

Since inception, we have expanded through a combination of substantial organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Today, we have an efficient integrated international business platform, offering all our core activities in South Africa and the UK and select activities in Australia, with approximately 6333 employees.

We are organised as a network comprising five business divisions: Private Client Activities, Capital Markets, Investment Banking, Asset Management and Property Activities. Our head office provides group-wide integrating functions and is also responsible for central funding and the Trade Finance business.

Our strategic goals and objectives are based on an aspiration to be recognised as a distinctive specialist banking group. This distinction is embodied in our entrepreneurial culture, which is balanced by a strong risk management discipline, client-centric approach and ability to be nimble, flexible and innovative. We do not seek to be all things to all people and aim to build well-defined, value-added businesses that serve the needs of select market niches where we can compete effectively.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport goes .mobi

flycvg.mobi

Ready 5/5

Why.mobi has developed a dedicated page to showcase some of the major worldwide brands currently adopting .mobi as their mobile website branding tool.

Also to serve as quick and cheaper access to their mobile websites.

See more here: why.mobi/brands.php

Here are some screenshots to give you a taste:

Back in May 2008 we noticed those guys at BMW had launched another .mobi mobile website. This time dedicated to the iconic mini….

MINI Mobile. MINI The world at your fingertips
28.05.2008

Online at the launch of two special editions Trigger MINI and MINI Abbey Road, the mobile portal it.mini.mobi is a ‘window’ always open to the world MINI. Accessible through the use innovative system of QR codes, the wap site offers a quick and easy access to news about product, appointments community MINI and the most recent projects
being linked to the world of creativity, for example Check-in Architecture

Already online and reachable at it.mini.mobi, the new mobile portal offers’ window ‘always open to the world MINI. Accessible at any time by using your phone connections wap (Wireless Application Protocol), the site is divided into three sections that allow for a simple and direct look on the latest product (http://it.mini.mobi/mini ), To discover the latest projects MINI (http://it.mini.mobi/
checkin), and gain useful information about local events, activities linked to the world of cinema art and design, and appointments with the community MINI (http://it.mini.mobi/events).

Now, it seems they are updating the site all the time mini.mobi

Transilien.com have launched their mobile website at Transilien.mobi

The site autodetects whether you are on a mobile device and gives you the .mobi website which will load in an instant and save on expensive download times. It will also be quick and easy to navigate.

Transilien is the brand name for railway services of the SNCF-owned railway network operating within Paris’ Île-de-France région. “Transilien” is a derivative of “Francilien”, a term commonly used to describe the inhabitants of the Île-de-France région.

Transilien trains depart from Paris’ main railway and RER stations (although many city-centre RER stations are run by the RATP) and the western business district of La Défense. Transilien services transported 615 million passengers in 2004.

transilien.mobi

ready report

5/5 score ready report

Auto National have gone .mobi with their mobile website

autonational.mobi –

autonational.co.uk pc site

Autonational Rescue has been available since 1993, the service is backed by Equity Red Star, who have been providing Motor Insurance since 1908 and now has over 600,000 clients.

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odnoklassniki.ru has a traffic rank with alexa of 41 !

It is an immenseley popular website.

Odnoklassniki.ru is a social network service for classmates and old friends reunion popular in Russia and in the former Soviet Union. It was created by Albert Popkov in March 2006.
The website currently claims that it has more than 25 million registered users.

I’m not sure if the website is being mirrored, but every link you click retains, the .mobi address so am happy the domain is being used:

odnoklassniki.mobi

Only gets a 1/5 on ready so they need to do some work really to keep mobile surfers happy.

Sweden is a very tech savvy and organised place.

It’s also a place very dear to my heart. It gives me pleasure to announce a few interesting .mobi developments happening over in Sweden. I will try to update this post for coming weeks until it is time to start a fresh thread, as i anticipate there will be such a flurry of sites, i won’t be able to keep up, as is happening now. Finland’s next!

Now before you get excited, some big swedish players are using .mobi, but as of yet, no real PROMOTION of the url, many are playing safe with subdomains of existing urls, making for very ugly urls for their trendy young audience to remember.

Anyway, enjoy!

First up is radiosweden.mobi , see screenshot:

Now, i see the logo at the top, but they are promoting radiosweden.mobi also

Maybe to their english viewers?

If you go to the main pc site, www.sr.se  you will see near centre right of page:

sr.se  is a google pagerank 8 website, and is in the alexa top 6000 busiest websites in the world.

A contender for a rfp domain from mtld. Hope they apply for sr.mobi

Next up we have e24.mobi

It’s bigger brother, the pc version is e24.se , this is a google page rank 6, alexa 8,800 site.

See screenshot of mobile site below:

I can’t see any promotion for the url: e24.mobi, but hopefully that will come, or maybe there and i can’t find!

Next we have eniro.mobi

Baby brother to eniro.se , a google page rank 7 , alexa ranked monster at 1,850!

Now once again, the browser redirects to mobil.eniro.se on the mobile version. And i can find no promotion of the .mobi yet, so don’t go celebrating just yet. Watch this space i think. See screenshot below of  eniro mobile

Another large site now: svd.se

is a google page rank 7, alexa ranked 6,600 site.

The mobile version can be found at svd.mobi

Again the browser redirects to mobil.svd.se

See screenshot of mobile site below:

You may have noticed these guys are the same network as e24. You can see their link at top and it seems this is their policy at moment for their urls. Personally, as they own the .mobis, it is so much better for thei clientbase imho for them to access just the mobile site should they want using .mobi

Also a lot cooler, and a lot shorter. Again the deveice may be sniffed server side but sometimes people want to choose which site they get. Full blown heavy, or lite.

Exactly same deal for tasteline.mobi. If you see top links at svd.mobi, same network. See screenshot:

Another major site is svt.se , google pagerank 7, alexa sub 3k

Their mobile portal is svt.mobi

Again the browser redirect is mobil.svt.se , and from what i can see, this is what is promoted. Such a pity!

Here is screenshot anyway, nice looking site!

I thought i would mention a few majorish sites in sweden that are just redirecting their .mobis at present and will be interesting to watch what gets developed out:

swedbank.mobi   swedbank.se (.se is a google pagerank 7, alexa 2,500 site!)

some small to medium:

autoplan.mobi  autoplan.se

elektroskandia.mobi elektroskandia.se

worth mentioning some small ones too:

slogg.mobi  varme.mobi