Jim Atwood made a WordPress blog and used a mobile plugin. That’s impressive, but not unique. After all, I do that here on mobiEnthusiast.mobi every day. The unique part is that Jim is an American living in Japan. As a mobile internet junkie, I want to learn all I can about what makes mobile tick in a country that is mostly mobile-only – especially since I don’t understand the language.

According to Jim, it is common in Japan to make two completely separate versions of a website. One is for desktop computers, like his standard blog, Ricochehost.com (computer link), and a completely separate, stand-alone mobile website, such as his mobile blog, JimAtwood.mobi.

In Jim’s words:

The Japanese like to make things simple and have two sites. This avoids the browser detection problems that everyone has all the time. With just one dedicated mobile site, things are much easier. In some cases, Japanese website only one version and that is mobile. In my opinion, mobile usage for the Internet is much more prevalent in Japan.

As a mobi enthusiast, this is music to my ears. It makes perfect sense to avoid trying to guess what new phone is going to come out next and garble my site. Granted, mTLD/dotMobi does a great job with Device Atlas, but if you make a site that complies with ready.mobi in the first place, it is much simpler and saves a lot of time and headaches. Dot com for computers, dot mobi for mobile web.

I met Jim through LinkedIn (mobile link). If you are interested in networking with me on LinkedIn as well, please let me know.

Here’s to the mobile web!

This post is featured in Carnival of the Mobilists Issue #185. Check it out for a great weekly roundup of mobile bloggers.

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