Mobile websites are getting more and more interesting. I'm trying to create a clear view for me and my clients on how to approach this upcoming market. So while surfing the web on my desktop and creating small mobile websites I was wondering what would be the best way to direct a user to your mobile website. A subdomain or a extra extension, like .mobi. Automatic redirection, a link to your mobile website. No redirections or anything at all, only different stylesheets depending on screen-size or user-agent.

There are a few options if you optimize your website for mobile devices when it comes to url specifications.

1. a domain specific site. sitename.mobi This is a common solution if you are mainly focused on mobile users. But should you visit it on a desktop, should it be desktop optimized?
2. a subdomain mobi.sitename.com, there a many variations on the subdomain, the most common is m. others i've seen are mmm. mobile. mob.
3. a request url such as sitename.com/m/ and again with very different requests as m / mobile / mob etc.
4. a plain domain sitename.com, most of the time you will find these load different stylesheets.
5. all of the above, never missing anyone.

For all five, and there are probably more, there are pro's and con's. I was wondering if there is a w3c standard for domain specifications if you are creating a mobile version of your website. There is nothing i could find that is directed towards mobile specifications. Only the following 2 comments:

1. [URIS] Keep the URIs of site entry points short.
   
   "5.2.1.1 What it means: Typing URIs on mobile devices can be difficult, and it is expected that users will prefer to use alternative methods of obtaining URIs when available - such as following a hyperlink (from an e-mail, SMS or other Web page), WAP Push, 2D bar code, color bar code, RFID tag and Bluetooth. However, typing a URI may in some cases be the only option available. By keeping site entry point URIs short it is possible to reduce the chance of error and provide a more satisfactory user experience."
   [URIS - http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/#URIS]
2. a quote saying that domain URI's shouldn't have aliases if they are presenting the same resources.
   
   "A URI owner SHOULD NOT associate arbitrarily different URIs with the same resource." -from Architecture of the Word Wide Web, Volume One [ WEBARCH - http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-webarch-20041215/#uri-aliases]

To be continued