Site owner FAQs
- What is the Instant Mobilizer?
- Who should use the Instant Mobilizer?
- Do I need to have a desktop website?
- Do I need a .mobi domain name?
- Can I convert my PC site into a mobile website?
- What are the benefits to web page visitors?/a>
- What about advertising on the website?
- How do I make changes to my mobile website?
- Can I measure my mobile stats?
- What is a source site?
- I just added Instant Mobilizer to my .mobi domain name and set up the source site, why is it not working right away?
Preview FAQs
- Why do I get an error when I click on the phone number in the preview?
- Why can I not see my business phone number or address at the top of the page?
- Why do I get a blank screen in the preview?
Site Optimization FAQs
- Optimize your desktop to work with Instant Mobilizer
- Why does my logo not appear on my mobilized site?
- Why does my address not get converted to a Google map?
- Why is it not possible to click on my phone number?
- Known limitations
Reseller FAQs
- What is the Instant Mobilizer?
- What are the benefits?
- How does an SMB use the Instant Mobilzer
- Can all websites be converted with Instant Mobilzer?
- What happens about domain deletes, transfers, and renewals?
- I'm an API reseller. How do I add this product to .mobi domain name, and do I need to set the name servers?
- Is this available in PDQ?
- Why does Instant Mobilizer go out and fetch the original site every time?
- What is the price of Instant Mobilizer?
What is the Instant Mobilizer?
Domain owners can choose a mobile domain name and have their existing PC website automatically adapted for mobile customers.
Instant Mobilizer creates this mobile website with no effort by you, and automatically adds features that help your visitors use your site while on their phones. The site is fast on almost any phone, and puts your phone number, maps, and company information at their fingertips.
Who should use the Instant Mobilizer?
The Instant Mobilizer is part of a Total Mobile Solution for the Small to Medium Size Business (SMB) and individual target markets.
- The Instant Mobilizer pulls content from an existing website and automatically reformats that content for the specific mobile device that is accessing the .mobi website. The Instant Mobilizer reformats the screen size, resizes and optimizes images, banners and logos, and inserts 'made for mobile' functionality, like click to call code for phone numbers, automatic Google maps links for addresses, and more.
- Small businesses and individuals may not have the technical knowledge to develop their own mobile website. With the Instant Mobilizer, no technical knowledge is required.
Do I need to have a desktop website?
In order for the Instant Mobilizer to populate your .mobi website with live content, an existing website must exist to pull that content from. It is not required that a site exists when you sign up for the service; However, no content will be available at the .mobi website until the corresponding desktop website is live.
Do I need a .mobi domain name?
Yes. The Instant Mobilizer will only work on a .mobi domain name.
Can I convert my PC site into a mobile website?
Yes. In just a few easy clicks, our new Instant Mobilzer technology converts your existing PC website into a streamlined, optimized mobile site. Instant Mobilzer will automatically
- Resize images to be clearly readable on any mobile screen
- Optimize and reformat content to be deliverable and searchable via all mobile services
- Add user-friendly functions, information and services that specifically cater to mobile customers
What are the benefits to web page visitors?
- The Instant Mobilizer automatically converts phone numbers to 'click-to-call' links
- Device awareness: Page size and features are automatically adapted depending on the end user mobile device capabilities. No matter what mobile device visitors are using, the site is user friendly.
- Google map auto generation: If an address is on the mobile webpage, a link to a Google map will be added, to allow the user to easily locate the business, at anytime, from anywhere.
- On-the-go discoverability - Customers can locate information on your business from anywhere, at any time.
What about advertising on the website?
Google ads will be replaced on the mobile site with Google mobile ads, with the correct account owner credited. Other ads will typically be treated as images, and will be rescaled, but will still work. However they may not always be readable.
How do I make changes to my mobile website?
Any changes that are made to your desktop website as automatically reflected on your mobile site. So you don't have to worry about maintenance of an additional site.
Can I measure my mobile stats?
Instant Mobilizer passes on requests to the source site in accordance with the cache-control and expiry policy of your site: if you have requested that pages will never be cached and expire immediately, Instant Mobilizer will re-fetch your pages every time they are requested.
What is a source site?
The source site is the main web site that the Instant Mobilizer will use on your .mobi site.
I just added Instant Mobilizer to my .mobi domain name and set up the source site, why is it not working right away?
The .mobi zone file may take a few hours to update before it begins mobilize your web site. Please check back after a few hours. If after 24 hours it still is not mobilizing, please contact tech support.
Why do I get an error when I click on the phone number in the preview?
The click-to-call functionality will only work from a mobile phone, not a PC.
Why can I not see my business phone number or address at the top of the page?
If they are not detected on the site, they will not be displayed in the preview. See the next section with recommendations on address and phone number formats.
Why do I get a blank screen in the preview?
A blank screen can result if your site is entirely based on Flash. Flash content cannot be displayed by most mobile devices.
Site Optimization Information
The following information will help publishers to optimize their desktop websites so that they work well with Instant Mobilizer. Sites which are compliant with Section 508 accessibility guidelines tend to adapt better and result in a better end user experience. In general, simple HTML sites result in a good end user experience, and sites which conform to modern web design rules.
- Ensure that your main site logo contains the word logo in it somewhere e.g. logo.gif, site-logo.jpg, newlogo_small.png
- Minimize use of Flash (for SEO purposes as well)
- Reduce use of background images
- Avoid the Known Limitations (see below)
- Follow format recommendations for address and phone number
Why does my logo not appear on my mobilized site?
Ensure that your main site logo contains the word logo in it somewhere e.g. logo.gif, site-logo.jpg, newlogo_small.png
Why does my address not get converted to a Google map?
Please ensure that your address is written in a clear format, separated from the rest of the content e.g.
1234 Main St. Suite #2
City Name
ZIP State
or
1234 Main St. Suite #2, City Name, ZIP State
The main cause of issues with address is when additional information is included as part of the address e.g. the following address will not work (because of the hint included):
1234 Main St. Suite #2 (beside the gas station)
City Name
ZIP State
Why is it not possible to click on my phone number?
Phone numbers in common formats are recognized. To ensure that Instant Mobilizer picks up your phone number and makes it clickable, please use one of the following formats:
- Full international format e.g. +1 (212) 123 4567
- US formats e.g. (212) 123 4567 or 212-123-4567
Known Limitations
The following web site features will not work well or at all with Instant Mobilizer due to limitations with most mobile web browsers.
- Image maps
- Flash objects
- Frames
- Ecommerce (since SSL not supported)
- Certain forms, particularly where there is a dependency on JavaScript
- Ads that are not Google or Admob
- MX records - DNS MX records are a known limitation of the Instant Mobilizer service: The domain can be used for web only - other services are not possible due to the fact the DNS server for the domain is controlled by dotMobi. This means that you cannot use email with an Instant Mobilized domain.
- Tables used for layout purposes
- The service mobilizes all the second-level and all third-level and deeper sub-domains of a site - it is currently not possible to selectively mobilize parts of a domain
- Can only mobilize a top level domain; eg cannot use to mobilize watchshop.yahoostores.com
- Site traffic meters
- JavaScript pop-ups and mouseover behaviors
What is the Instant Mobilizer?
The Instant Mobilizer is part of a Total Mobile Solution for the Small to Medium Size Business (SMB) and individual target markets.
- The Instant Mobilizer pulls content from an existing website and automatically reformats that content for the specific mobile device that is accessing the .mobi website. The Instant Mobilizer reformats the screen size, resizes and optimizes images, banners and logos, and inserts 'made for mobile' functionality, like click to call code for phone numbers, automatic Google maps links for addresses, and more.
- Small businesses and individuals may not have the technical knowledge to develop their own mobile website. With the Instant Mobilizer, no technical knowledge is required.
What are the benefits?
- Provide your customers with a complete desktop and mobile web presence
- Increased .mobi registrations - Only .mobi sites can use the Instant Mobilizer. The ability to have an instant mobile web presence will drive increased .mobi domain registrations
- Increased .mobi renewals - Because Instant Mobilizer sites will have live content, they are much more likely to renew than a 'parked' page.
- Up-sell opportunities - The Instant Mobilizer provides an amazing introduction to the mobile web. Once customers realize the opportunity, you can provide an upgrade path into professional site builders and custom web designs.
- Position as a market leader and an early adopter of innovative technology to serve their customers
- Extended reach to new customers
- Advantage over competitors
- Improved discoverability of their business
How does an SMB use the Instant Mobilzer?
- SMBs with existing desktop sites are offered a mobile website and a .mobi domain from their domain name provider.
- After opting-in and confirming the site is their own content, the Instant Mobilizer automatically transforms the existing site into a mobile friendly version, including appropriate image resizing and content reformatting
- Mobile-specific functions (i.e. Click-to-call) is also made available
- A preview of the new mobile site is provided in real time
- The site owner confirms their mobile website and the transaction is complete
- When the user requests the new .mobi site, dotMobi's platform receives the call and renders the "mobilized" version of the site.
Can all websites be converted with Instant Mobilzer?
Yes, however certain codes-such as JavaScript and Flash-cannot be transcoded.
What happens about domain deletes, transfers, and renewals?
- Deletes: when a domain is deleted, the service will cease automatically.
- Renewals: when renewal takes place, no change happens to the name server entry, so service continues uninterrupted.
- Transfers: if a domain is transferred to another registrar, there is no guarantee of service since the new registrar may not offer the service. If they do offer the service, it will need to be re-enabled.
I'm an API reseller. How do I add this product to .mobi domain name, and do I need to set the name servers?
Send us the .mobi domain and the source site using the instructions in the API manual. eNom will automatically set the name servers for your customer's domains.
Is this available in PDQ?
It is not available at this time for purchase through PDQ. You will be able to turn the service off in the PDQ control panel, however.
Why does Instant Mobilizer go out and fetch the original site every time?
It ensures that the site owner is not denied the ability to capture all of the statistics for their mobile new site. Note that not the entire site is retrieved each time - images and other elements are cached for a configurable period. It would be more efficient to cache, but this creates two issues; a risk of not providing the absolutely latest content, and also the site owner loses visibility of traffic, so their statistics will be incorrect.
What is the price of Instant Mobilizer?
This is a high value service which will be offered free of charge for a period of one year from production release, on condition that the service is passed on to your customer free of charge. Any end customer adopting during this period will be entitled to one year's free usage, irrespective of when they sign up during the first year.
