.tel

David · 16 Feb 2009, 01:39 AM

What are your thoughts on the new .tel domain name?

Adrian Bell · 16 Feb 2009, 05:54 AM

I don't see the point? + Any contact details on the web are open to abuse.

David · 16 Feb 2009, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrian Bell

I don't see the point? + Any contact details on the web are open to abuse.

The contact details are not on the web (they are at the nameserver dns level)

Privacy is built in and under the users control.

No web savvy is required to administer this domain.

See here

n5bb · 16 Feb 2009, 01:36 PM

It appears to me that the creators hope to collect a large amount of funds due to their "Sunrise" and "Landrush" programs. I checked, and a random name costs US$375 for a 3 year registration at this time, compared to under $30 for a more common top-level domain. I think that the costs will be more reasonable after the Landrush period is over on March 24, 2009.

Bill

David · 16 Feb 2009, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n5bb

It appears to me that the creators hope to collect a large amount of funds due to their "Sunrise" and "Landrush" programs. I checked, and a random name costs US$375 for a 3 year registration at this time, compared to under $30 for a more common top-level domain. I think that the costs will be more reasonable after the Landrush period is over on March 24, 2009.

Very true: I was contemplating registering my first name but just missed it (many common first names are still available) - many of the good business names are already gone.

My firstnamelastname (or first initial lastname) combination is still available as a .com, so I find it difficult to justify registering one of these, even when the landrush period is over. I like the idea of this domain because it will appeal to non techie types (who want to keep things simple) It will be more successful than most folk are expecting it to be IMO.

vans · 16 Feb 2009, 05:15 PM

Except for noting how expensive .tel domains are, until I read this thread I had no idea how they were meant to be used. I don't keep up with changes in technology like I once did, but I am better informed than most (and that is not saying much).

I have read the link and if I understand it correctly ordinary mobile phone users have to know that there is an alternative method of finding a phone number. Is this correct? If so they must know in advance that a particular person has registered and know that persons .tel domain. They cannot randomly type in a name because there are millions of Adam Smiths in the world. Using the domain .tel the mobile phone user has the added cost of using mobile internet to get the phone number.

If my understanding is correct I fail to see the logic of using .tel. The mobile phone user has to be given the .tel domain name as a contact details so why not just give the user your mobile phone number?.

Also, would you not want two .tel domain names one for personal and one for business use?

buyog · 17 Feb 2009, 02:12 AM

closely related to .mobi?

David · 17 Feb 2009, 08:07 AM

it's actually very different to .mobi, which is a web related tool.

To get a persons contact addresses (who has a .tel domain name) you would just visit their domain: eg: anyname.tel and all the contact info (not marked private by the owner) would be available for you to view. No web site to visit, no complications. All the contact info is 'clickable' so you don't have to start typing stuff in (phone numbers, social sites, blogs, etc)

inbx · 17 Feb 2009, 10:27 AM

Since the very nature of the .tel domain is the publication of the most up to date information about an organization or individual, spammers and perhaps telephone solicitors must be rubbing their hands together in anticipation.

David · 17 Feb 2009, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by inbx

Since the very nature of the .tel domain is the publication of the most up to date information about an organization or individual, spammers and perhaps telephone solicitors must be rubbing their hands together in anticipation.

Email addresses are not viewable.... you get to choose who views your info (I think) I have done a fair bit of research on these and have not found any obvious loopholes. Email is not built in to these domains (as with other domains) you cannot just point an MX record as this functionality does not exist, but can be created by the registrar that is hosting the domain. Other email information can be published (if so desired) I guess we will have to wait and see how this pans out, when these go live at the end of March.

theog · 17 Feb 2009, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n5bb

It appears to me that the creators hope to collect a large amount of funds due to their "Sunrise" and "Landrush" programs. I checked, and a random name costs US$375 for a 3 year registration at this time, compared to under $30 for a more common top-level domain. I think that the costs will be more reasonable after the Landrush period is over on March 24, 2009.

Bill

And you are correct....

With each "new" tld release "they" are raising the fees more and more....

.mobi is a bust... as most of these "new" tlds are.... not that they will all stay that way... but the domain industry has taken a downward turn, as most industries have....

David · 17 Feb 2009, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theog

And you are correct....

With each "new" tld release "they" are raising the fees more and more....

The price of decent (second hand) .com domain is up in the many thousands of $ range these days. Anyone wanting a decent .com has to pay through the nose. The price of other domains (including .tel) are cheap by comparison.

.tel is not competing with other domains though (they are a different beast altogether)

17 Feb 2009, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vans

I have read the link and if I understand it correctly ordinary mobile phone users have to know that there is an alternative method of finding a phone number. Is this correct? If so they must know in advance that a particular person has registered and know that persons .tel domain. They cannot randomly type in a name because there are millions of Adam Smiths in the world. Using the domain .tel the mobile phone user has the added cost of using mobile internet to get the phone number.

If my understanding is correct I fail to see the logic of using .tel. The mobile phone user has to be given the .tel domain name as a contact details so why not just give the user your mobile phone number?.

Also, would you not want two .tel domain names one for personal and one for business use?

Vans, at least one directory is planned by Telnic. It's at www.telpages.com and should start working soon after Feb 25th when all current .TEL names start resolving in the whois. Personally, I'm more interested in being able to give out my .TEL as a business card to people I know. Whereas my competitor may give a prospect a mobile phone number, I give them a shorter, simpler 'token': my .TEL name. It's easier for them and instead of just my phone number, they get all of my contact information and the guarantee it will never be out of date. Hopefully a few people will give me theirs and my days of updating my address book start coming to an end.

.TEL names are hierarichal, so you can use business names for individuals or individual names for business. For example you can have johndoe.xyzcorp.tel and janesmith.xyzcorp.tel, but you could also set up your own personal .tel to include your business info as in xyzcorp.janesmith.tel. Setting up these sub-domains is very easy with the administrative interface presenting sub-domains as sub-folders. You can set up a free demo .TEL and try in out at www.telnic.org/vip.

theog · 18 Feb 2009, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattlane

Vans, at least one directory is planned by Telnic. It's at www.telpages.com and should start working soon after Feb 25th when all current .TEL names start resolving in the whois. Personally, I'm more interested in being able to give out my .TEL as a business card to people I know. Whereas my competitor may give a prospect a mobile phone number, I give them a shorter, simpler 'token': my .TEL name. It's easier for them and instead of just my phone number, they get all of my contact information and the guarantee it will never be out of date. Hopefully a few people will give me theirs and my days of updating my address book start coming to an end.

.TEL names are hierarichal, so you can use business names for individuals or individual names for business. For example you can have johndoe.xyzcorp.tel and janesmith.xyzcorp.tel, but you could also set up your own personal .tel to include your business info as in xyzcorp.janesmith.tel. Setting up these sub-domains is very easy with the administrative interface presenting sub-domains as sub-folders. You can set up a free demo .TEL and try in out at www.telnic.org/vip.

There is nothing that you explained above that can't already be accomplished.... or being accomplished right now.

It seems you are bitten with the same bug I had back in 2001 or so when some of the "new" tlds came out then... I learned the hard way... or should I say, the fun way... lol

In the short, these new tlds are not going to be hot... give them 200 years or so and maybe they will... but then we will have moved on to something else... lol

But I also notice no mention of ."company" either... that is what companies may use for their people... For example, if I worked for microsoft and my name was JohnDoe, then my url would be:

JohnDoe.Microsoft

So the company (or personal, if you can afford it) name replaces the tld....

Going to be interesting to see how all of this shakes out... personally I see many tlds going under before it is all over... but that is a guess way in the future.... but who knows....

18 Feb 2009, 05:43 PM

Good points theog. I certainly admit to having the bug and I wish I didn't. The last time I evangelized about anything was in 1989, when I was first introduced to the web and internet. .TEL may not have quite the magnitude, but I I honestly believe it will be just as pervasive. By way of a disclaimer and maybe adding some perspective, I work for a domain registrar. I tend to keep this quiet and don't advertise which one, as it tends to color opinion with respect to my motives.

That said, I’ve been involved with the launch of .CA, .US, .CN .ASIA, and .MOBI. Not once have I written a public word about any of them (nor any other product or service we offer). I also have reservations and concerns about current talks to allow near unlimited domains onto the market.

When I heard hear about .TEL it took me 6 months to summon the energy to look into it and that was only because of the looming deadline of whether we would participate in the launch. Within a day of researching it, I was convinced this thing would change the world (eventually). Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time speculating not only about what it is, but what it could be, based on the extensibility and potential of the underlying architecture and technology.

In many ways, it’s a shame that it’s a domain name, as it then has to overcome the traditional arguments about new TLD’s. At the same time, the way it uses the DNS gives it the much needed solidity of a foundation that can support the entire world adopting it.
As to alternate or comparable technologies, I’ve heard it compared to Plaxo, XFN, vCard, .mobi, ENUM, LinkedIn, Facebook, OpenID and many, many others. It’s also stated that you can use any extension to store data in NAPTR records on the DNS (this is true, if you have the technical skills, but you’d still need all the infrastructure around it to make it work in the same way as .TEL). Unfortunately when you get into the details, none of these even come close.

In a very real way, I’d like nothing more than for someone to point me to a viable alternative, so I can stop all my preaching and get back to the rest of my life and stop annoying people.

So far it hasn’t happened, but I’m definitely open to looking at any suggested alternatives. Until then, I feel compelled to beat the drum and urge everyone to take another look at .TEL. It certainly isn’t a domain in the traditional sense. And when you stand back from it, it’s really very dull and mundane, but in my opinion, it will could have the same level of impact on our lives as e-mail or the cell phone. [I did a small edit above to correct an unintentionally ambiguous tone.]

16 Feb 2009, 01:39 AM	#1
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	.tel What are your thoughts on the new .tel domain name?

18 Feb 2009, 05:43 PM	#15
mattlane Guest Posts: n/a	Good points theog. I certainly admit to having the bug and I wish I didn't. The last time I evangelized about anything was in 1989, when I was first introduced to the web and internet. .TEL may not have quite the magnitude, but I I honestly believe it will be just as pervasive. By way of a disclaimer and maybe adding some perspective, I work for a domain registrar. I tend to keep this quiet and don't advertise which one, as it tends to color opinion with respect to my motives. That said, I’ve been involved with the launch of .CA, .US, .CN .ASIA, and .MOBI. Not once have I written a public word about any of them (nor any other product or service we offer). I also have reservations and concerns about current talks to allow near unlimited domains onto the market. When I heard hear about .TEL it took me 6 months to summon the energy to look into it and that was only because of the looming deadline of whether we would participate in the launch. Within a day of researching it, I was convinced this thing would change the world (eventually). Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time speculating not only about what it is, but what it could be, based on the extensibility and potential of the underlying architecture and technology. In many ways, it’s a shame that it’s a domain name, as it then has to overcome the traditional arguments about new TLD’s. At the same time, the way it uses the DNS gives it the much needed solidity of a foundation that can support the entire world adopting it. As to alternate or comparable technologies, I’ve heard it compared to Plaxo, XFN, vCard, .mobi, ENUM, LinkedIn, Facebook, OpenID and many, many others. It’s also stated that you can use any extension to store data in NAPTR records on the DNS (this is true, if you have the technical skills, but you’d still need all the infrastructure around it to make it work in the same way as .TEL). Unfortunately when you get into the details, none of these even come close. In a very real way, I’d like nothing more than for someone to point me to a viable alternative, so I can stop all my preaching and get back to the rest of my life and stop annoying people. So far it hasn’t happened, but I’m definitely open to looking at any suggested alternatives. Until then, I feel compelled to beat the drum and urge everyone to take another look at .TEL. It certainly isn’t a domain in the traditional sense. And when you stand back from it, it’s really very dull and mundane, but in my opinion, it will could have the same level of impact on our lives as e-mail or the cell phone. [I did a small edit above to correct an unintentionally ambiguous tone.] Last edited by mattlane : 19 Feb 2009 at 02:12 AM.

16 Feb 2009, 05:54 AM	#2
Adrian Bell Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Darlington, UK Posts: 938	I don't see the point? + Any contact details on the web are open to abuse.

16 Feb 2009, 01:36 PM	#4
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,926	It appears to me that the creators hope to collect a large amount of funds due to their "Sunrise" and "Landrush" programs. I checked, and a random name costs US$375 for a 3 year registration at this time, compared to under $30 for a more common top-level domain. I think that the costs will be more reasonable after the Landrush period is over on March 24, 2009. Bill

16 Feb 2009, 05:15 PM	#6
vans Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 59	Except for noting how expensive .tel domains are, until I read this thread I had no idea how they were meant to be used. I don't keep up with changes in technology like I once did, but I am better informed than most (and that is not saying much). I have read the link and if I understand it correctly ordinary mobile phone users have to know that there is an alternative method of finding a phone number. Is this correct? If so they must know in advance that a particular person has registered and know that persons .tel domain. They cannot randomly type in a name because there are millions of Adam Smiths in the world. Using the domain .tel the mobile phone user has the added cost of using mobile internet to get the phone number. If my understanding is correct I fail to see the logic of using .tel. The mobile phone user has to be given the .tel domain name as a contact details so why not just give the user your mobile phone number?. Also, would you not want two .tel domain names one for personal and one for business use?

17 Feb 2009, 02:12 AM	#7
buyog Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 17	closely related to .mobi?

17 Feb 2009, 08:07 AM	#8
David Ultimate Contributor Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Canada. Posts: 10,355	it's actually very different to .mobi, which is a web related tool. To get a persons contact addresses (who has a .tel domain name) you would just visit their domain: eg: anyname.tel and all the contact info (not marked private by the owner) would be available for you to view. No web site to visit, no complications. All the contact info is 'clickable' so you don't have to start typing stuff in (phone numbers, social sites, blogs, etc)

17 Feb 2009, 10:27 AM	#9
inbx Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 13	Since the very nature of the .tel domain is the publication of the most up to date information about an organization or individual, spammers and perhaps telephone solicitors must be rubbing their hands together in anticipation.