With more than 4 billion cell phones in use worldwide — 487 million in China alone — it’s no wonder that “mobile” is all the rage.
A recent segment of “American Idol” received nearly 80 million text message votes. The 2008 U.S. presidential candidates are incorporating mobile communications elements into their campaigns. Social networks such as MySpace Latest News about MySpace and Twitter are starting to deploy mobile-friendly Web sites. Most mobile access is achieved via traditional methods such as wireless carrier “walled garden” decks, short codes, text messaging and often lengthy, convoluted sub-domains.
It begs the question: Is there a simpler, perhaps more powerful mobile access and branding Email Marketing Software - Free Demo tool that has largely gone unnoticed?
If people are going to access Web sites via cell phones, why not make it easy by using numbers instead of letters?
On billions of cell phones worldwide, the dial pad numbers 2 through 9 can represent letters of the alphabet. The numeral 2 can represent “a,” “b” or “c.” The “7″ button can represent “p,” “q,” “r” or “s,” etc.
Some of the world’s most popular Web sites use numeric-domains as their primary Web sites, including 163.com, 126.com, 888.com and 51.com.
Numeric domains can be the brand or help to strengthen the brand. The numeric feature can clearly indicate that the WAP site has been specifically formatted for optimum viewing and navigation on cell phones.
It’s much easier to enter 3776 (.com) — four input clicks — than it is to enter a lengthy sub-domain required to get to the same Web site such as mobileapp.espn.go (.com), requiring 32 input clicks.
Why are numeric domains only surfacing now? Perhaps for a number of reasons — fear of the unknown, early-adopter reluctance and the evolving technical expertise to deliver a “beyond expectations” mobile user experience.
Photo by Steven Heigl.
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