Destination: Dotmobi websites
Dotmobi websites are not widely visited -- yet, but investors hope they will be the next big online destination for users of mobile devices.

Think fast: You need to order flowers right now for [insert loved one's name here], who is in the car with you. How do you do it without the person knowing?

Answer: Use your cellphone to order online at the new domain name flowers.mobi.

At least, that's what domain name investor Rick Schwartz hopes will be the answer in a few years as we become more savvy with going online via cellphones. His website isn't even working yet, but he spent a cool $200,000 to buy the name flowers.mobi.

Dotmobi extensions are designed for websites that can be easily navigated on a small cellphone screen -- vertical, slim, tidy and quick to load. And as investors and companies bet on a future of online shopping via mobile devices, dotmobi has become the latest frontier in the Wild West, grab-it-while-you-can domain name game.

Since dotmobi domain names were opened to the public in September, more than 360,000 have been registered. Only a few of those names are active, such as nba.mobi and bmw.mobi.

Dotmobis are still largely not profitable, but investors are gambling that they will be, as cellphones, providers and users evolve to be more Web-friendly. And with big-name investors like Google, Microsoft, Nokia and T-Mobile supporting dotmobi, analysts are saying it may be more successful than other non-dotcom extensions. Dotus, dotbiz and dotinfo, for example, have not been as popular with investors.

EXUBERANT BUYERS

Pompano Beach domain name management company Moniker has registered 50,000 dotmobi names for clients. Hundreds of clients request the name every week, said Chief Executive Monte Cahn. Cahn said in all his years in the business, he has never seen a new domain name extension become so popular so fast.

The quick popularity also surprised executives at dotMobi, the company that owns and oversees the dotmobi registry.

''We basically did what it took dotcom almost 10 years to achieve, within a year,'' said Alexa Raad, vice president of marketing and business development for dotMobi.

Raad said the company's biggest goal now is to provide the tools for businesses to create quality Web pages, which will help determine whether the domain name takes off.

Even if a business doesn't understand how to build on the name, nabbing it is the most important step right now, said Ellen Rony, author and domain name consultant.

''No matter when now is, now is the best time,'' Rony said. ``You can get into it when you can get into it. I don't understand why anyone would wait.''

DEFENSIVE MOVE

Sometimes the purchase is defensive, to protect a name or trademark.

The state of Florida is going to court to protect its trademark from a domain name publisher that bought MyFlorida.mobi.

Shortly after Florida-based Logical Sites chief executive and owner Thomas Rask bought the name for two years at $70, a lawyer for the Florida Department of Management Services asked him to hand the website over, since the state owns the MyFlorida.com trademark.

''It was a complete surprise, I had no idea they had a trademark,'' Rask said.

Although the World Intellectual Property Organization ruled last month that Rask needs to give up the site, he has hired a lawyer to file a complaint with a district court in Tampa. He is arguing that the words ''my'' and ''Florida'' are too generic to enforce a trademark. He also says that since businesses with trademarks got to register their names before the public, the state should have done so then.

Tiffany Koenigkramer, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Management Services, said that if MyFlorida was misrepresented by his site, ``it could really be detrimental.''

But Rask plans to turn MyFlorida.mobi into a destination for mobile users to get tourism information on the go. Logical Sites already gets 30 percent of its income from advertisements on its Florida tourism sites, including beachdirectory.com and keysdirectory.com.

It's that on-the-go potential that made flowers.mobi such a tempting buy for Schwartz.

EXPENSIVE FLOWERS

At the October auction in Hollywood, the chief executive and founder of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Conference & Expo only planned to spend $100,000 to nab flowers.mobi. Even though the name was in hot demand at the auction, the Boca Raton resident said he'll have to wait several years to tell if it's worth his $200,000, the most expensive known dotmobi purchase.

Schwartz plans to pounce on more dotmobi names at the next auction in Las Vegas in March.

''I think there's going to be a whole lot of action again on this,'' he said. ``For whatever reason, whether it's justified or not, they are making headway.''