BuckleUp.mobi has one objective: to convince people to fasten their seatbelts every time they get into an automobile.

If you have ever been to a funeral for someone who died in a car accident, it is a terrible loss. If a teen is involved, it somehow feels like life has cheated us out of the potential that “could have been” as well as the love we feel for a friend or family member. If a police officer later reports that the deceased wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, the “should have, could have, would have” drama often gets played out in our imaginations.

BuckleUp.mobi has information about seat belt usage, including videos of crash test dummies that are graphic in nature about what can happen in a collision where seat belts are not worn. There is a special section just for teens who are likely to make fun of each other for wearing seatbelts. Drivers under age 21 are less likely to wear seat belts and more likely to be in an accident than older drivers. Finally, there is an interactive poll to post how often the reader wears a seatbelt – when I looked, it said just 77% of respondents wear their seatbelt every time the get into a car. That’s not enough in my opinion.

Please share BuckleUp.mobi with someone you care about today.

This post has been submitted to Carnival of the Mobilists (not a mobile link), a weekly roundup of the top blogs around the web that cover mobile from all angles, from hardware to apps to mobile website. Please check out what my mobile colleagues have to say by visiting today.

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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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