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The insider's guide to dotmobi

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(CNN) -- Everything you needed know about Internet domain suffix dotmobi.

Dot what?

Dotmobi, or to be more precise: .mobi, a new Internet suffix in the same style as .com, .net or .org.

I see, and what is dotmobi for? Web sites about fictional whales?

Not quite. Dotmobi is specifically allocated to for Internet content designed for viewing on mobile phones: Web pages that contain smaller images, reduced graphics and none of the other digital furniture that makes ordinary sites too big for tiny phones to handle.

Sounds useful, but can't I already see content on my mobile?

Indeed you can. But it's a minefield out there. While a few Web sites are geared up for cell phone viewing, most aren't, and when you're Googling away on the train, there's no way of knowing which ones are worth having a look at. The people behind dotmobi -- a consortium of companies including Microsoft, Vodafone, Samsung and Nokia -- say that by identifying sites that are cell phone-specific users will save time, money and the battery life of their handsets as they avoid unsuitable pages.

But will anyone use dotmobi?

The company overseeing domain registration, Mobile Top Level Domain, says thousands of major brand names have been registered during an initial period reserved for trademark holders. More are expected during after this week's launch of general registration.

Great, so I can expect to see a dotmobi version of my favorite Web site?

Not so fast. Many companies have simply registered their dotmobi name to prevent cybersquatting, the dubious practice of snapping up popular domain names and selling them on at premium prices.

That doesn't sound good.

It isn't, and some of these companies are unhappy at having to fork out just to guard their turf. Their unhappiness hasn't been helped by the higher-than-usual registration prices that MTLD says it has imposed specifically to prevent cybersquatting.

Bit of a dot con then?

Not if all goes according to plan and we get a corner of cyberspace clearly marked for phone surfing. It won't be plain sailing though, with some experts rubbishing the concept as a waste of time since most ordinary Web sites can be adapted to mobile phone screens and the devices themselves are evolving to such a degree that they may soon be able to handle full pages.

So what does this all mean?

Whether dotmobi is a success or not, one thing is guaranteed. In the future, the Internet will be everywhere.

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