Mobile domain names expanded for brands

The company behind the .mobi domain name for mobile website addresses has announced that businesses can now apply for domains with one or two alphanumeric characters.

According to dotMobi, this will allow applicants to register domain names such as q.mobi, k9.mobi, 13.mobi or ny.mobi, which are popular among those who wish to promote their brands through short, memorable addresses.

It added that another benefit of these domain names is that there is no need to translate them for different global markets.

Trey Harvin, chief executive of dotMobi, said domain names with one or two characters tend to be among the most valuable and expensive domains available.

"These short domains are highly memorable ways to reach mobile customers who are using the mobile Web in 2009 as never before," he said.

Firms interested in registering these new domain names must contact dotMobi directly and put forward specific proposals for how they intend to use the addresses.

In October 2008, dotMobi revealed that more than one million .mobi domains had been registered since their launch two years previously.