Mobile search company Visibility Mobile announced MetaTXT this week at the Mobile Asia Congress show. MetaTXT is intended to be a standard way for developers to inform Web browsers of a site’s numerous editions, such as a mobile version or RSS version.

Visibility Mobile and an informal collection of other startups said 1,000 mobile sites already use the concept, which is simply code in a text file. The group is supported by Ireland’s Waterford Institute of Technology but not by any official standards-setting organization.

Critics assert that MetaTXT is proprietary and that large companies like Google will not use it.  Moreover, it’s trying to solve a problem that does not exist, some argue.

The group’s other members are Abphone, Bango, JumpTap, MCN, Medio Systems, Mobilytics, Nubiq, RingRing Media and Taptu.