If you have been following the latest movements in the world of domains, then you may be aware of the imminent launch of the .mobi TLD which becomes available to the public today.

Unlike other TLDs that may be aimed at particular geographic areas or industries the .mobi namespace is targetting mobile devices, or rather content for them.

While the consortium backing the new domain may have the best of intentions it's hard not to feel that this is yet another scam that will lead to widescale speculation and little or no benefit to either business or end users.

A recent thread on the Irish Webmaster Forum shows that some Irish web professionals are still reeling from the fiasco that was the .eu launch.

The thread references a very good article in the Financial Times that sums up people's concerns all too well.

If you are a trademark holder or have a serious online presence for your brand then you wouldn't want a 3rd party to tarnish it. The end result of this can be that you end up registering hundreds of domains that you never actually use or have any need to use.

Who does this benefit?

Not the end user and not the business. The only possible winner is the domain registry and in the aftermath of the EU scandals even that assertion no longer carries as much weight as previously.