This week marked the opening of the .Tel TLD and I decided to go for a few after being seduced by the potential. I had initially seen the .Tel team at DEMO last September, but could not really wrap my head around why I’d want a new domain until now.
Telnic has decided that the .tel domain will be a new directory for finding people and businesses. There are no web sites in the traditional sense, instead there is a standard record view and then you choose what info you want to share. The cool part of this is that the data is stored within the DNS so it’s very quick to load and most importantly just works on every device! I’ve tested things on multiple computers, phones and even on my Kindle. What’s particularly cool about device access is each detail in your record is ready for click to contact access.
Your record is like a business card, though instead of an out of date paper card, it can be adjusted and views can be altered based on who you are showing your information to through a groups setting. You can also create a subdomain, which in .tel terms are called folders. Folders let you define sets of information you might want to cluster though unlike your main record all the info there is publicly viewable.
So enough with the background … You can see it in action for me at jonathangreene.tel and a folder view through social.jonathangreene.tel I also registered a .tel for this domain though I think I will mainly use my real name here as the whole idea is to be found.
Cool idea, although I think there are some flaws in their plan. First off, unless they can get critical mass, it's hard for me to see this taking off with consumers. Secondly, I'm not sure that I fully understand how this is all that better then a .com domain. Finally, I know that we're running out of telephone numbers, but doesn't that make more sense to use as an identifying number? If this takes off, I'll consider it more closely, but I think I need to see it gain traction before it's worth paying for something like this.
Clearly it needs to take on to actually have meaning … though like on Skype I thought it was worth capturing my name and domain for future identify purposes.
There's an API and a few apps already which could make the data very portable and automatically updated as things change which could also be quite powerful. Like what PalmPre has proposed with Synergy but across all devices with your contact info…
Just came across your blog and found it really very interesting just keep stuff like this coming, you totally rock!
Cool idea; but I think that a .name and one making their own page (on their own server) that they can register would be a bit better (and probably a tad more secure).
Pretty neat nonetheless.
the interesting part is the not having to make a site. the site is just info that can be clicked to contact based on the device in which you connect.
Seems like a cool idea I'm going to make one tel site for my business right away 🙂
Seems like a cool idea I'm going to make one tel site for my business right away 🙂