May 25, 2004
Father of the Web blasts .mobi domain
Tim Berners-Lee, has gone on record against the idea of a mobile-only TLD (top level domain). In a statement submitted to and endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) on 14 May, Berners-Lee denounced the proliferation of new TLDs, and of the proposed .mobi domain in particular. [InfoSync World]
Excerpts:
The .mobi propsal in particular, Berners-Lee claims, is directly contrary to the design and purpose of the Internet. Firstly, it is intended for use only by selected companies, mobile carriers and content providers. That breaks the device independence that is, according to Berners-Lee, integral to the Internet. "The Web must operate independently of the hardware, software or network used to access it, of the perceived quality or appropriateness of the information on it, and of the culture, and language, and physical capabilities of those who access it." Additionally, while currently "mobile" typically imples "small, intermittent connectivity, limited UI and bandwidth" there is no reason to believe that such a differentiation will persist for very long.
Too, Berners-Lee argues, "It is fundamentally useful to be able to quote the URI for some information and then look up that URI [Uniform Resource Identifier, the general case of a URL] in an entirely different context." Tying a .mobi domain to mobile devices breaks that portability.
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