The Ridge Online is partnering with .mobi to bring readers a smart and user friendly directory of services and attractions in the Ridge area. Click here. Or scroll down to our Links section and click on The Ridge Directory. It’ll take you directly to the .mobi site. Easy peasy . . . and you can do all this on your cellphone!
Question: Do I need an expensive fancy smartphone, like an iPhone or Blackberry, to view a mobile website?
Answer: Mobi websites are designed and optimised to work well on both basic handsets and smartphones alike. There is no need to download any special Apps. All that is required is that the phone is an internet capable cellphone with an enabled data package from your cellular phone network provider.
Q: Why .mobi sites – what is wrong with using the usual .com, .net, .info or .co.za sites ?
A: The key differentiator for .mobi websites is the mobile user experience . . .mobi sites are developed especially for use on cellphones so are guaranteed to work on mobile devices, whereas .com, .net, .info and .co.za sites etc, are created for laptop and desktop computers so may contain complex graphics and sophisticated web designs that would take ages to load on to a cellphone, and may not display clearly on the handset’s limited screen. In addition navigating about these sites on mobile devices is usually tedious, making the whole user experience an unsatisfactory affair.
Q: Is .mobi only a cellphone thing ?
A: .mobi sites can be viewed on all mobile devices, such as cellphones, PDAs, smartphones, ultra-mobile-PCs (UMPC), games consoles like the Sony PSP, as well as laptop and desktop PCs. It doesn’t matter how the internet browser connects to the internet, be it ADSL, dial-up, EDGE, GSM/GPRS, 3G/HSDPA, iBURST, ISDN, WiFi, WiMAX, so all .mobi sites can be accessed and viewed through any browser, bringing our websites to the widest audience possible.
Q: What do .mobi sites offer, that SMS text message based business directory services don’t ?
A: .mobi sites are free to use and can be searched as much as the mobile user wants.
SMS-information based services charge a fee for each query that is searched! For example, each SMS on with a local service company costs R2. With data packages from leading cellular network providers costing as little as R10 per month, it’s easy to see which service is better value for money!