.Tel Domain Names Go on Sale
Starting today, companies and trademark holders can start registering their own .tel domains. However, unlike most domain names, .tel domains are severely restricted by Telnic, the main registrar for these domains. Users and companies can only put up their contact information on these sites and they can only do so through Telnic's own forms.
In some respects, these domains are similar to GoDaddy's SmartSpace or Chi.mp, only that these two products are far more flexible.
During the current 'Sunrise' phase, only trademark holders can register .tel domains. The general public will have to wait until the 'Landrush' phase, which starts on February 3, 2009.
Online Phonebook
At its best, .tel domains could become something like an online phonebook, though the minimal amount of flexibility will surely disappoint many potential users. In its current state, .tel users can't even add their own logos to these domains.
GoDaddy and Chi.mp
GoDaddy and Chi.mp might be targeting a slightly different audience, but users get far more flexibility with these products, including the ability to aggregate their activity on social networks and to apply different themes and logos to their profiles.
In the end, the success of the .tel domains will depend on third-party developers. If other websites, social networks, or mobile phone address books start supporting these domains (and those of Telnic's competitors), then this might become an easy way to keep address books up to date. But then, you could also do this with any service that provides you with a vCard.
Can it Work?
In an age where the Internet is still synonymous with .com addresses (or their local equivalent) for the vast majority of users, it remains to be seen if these .tel domains will find a lot of takers. Also, the average price for .tel domains for individuals we found from US registrars was around $20, which is a lot more than most people pay for their .com domains - and those give their owners a lot more flexibility.
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Another ridiculous domain extension to pollute the Internet. Doesn't sound like it will succeed, their strategy with limited flexibility and price will doom it.
sadly this article complete fails to describe what .tel domains are about; from wikipedia:
"In simple terms, .tel is about publishing contact data: phone numbers, SIP addresses and so on directly in the DNS, not on html-based websites"
So, in essence it seems to be about having structured/machine readable source for contact data that can be accessed based on the URL for a person or company; i.e. you enter the URL into your address book application which then fetches mail address, telephone number etc. Still probably not the best idea (why not URLs of FOAF files?), but also not as stupid as your article makes it sound.
As the second commenter pointed out, the very interesting thing that you missed in the article is that .tel information is stored directly on the DNS server. This should greatly accelerate access time with fewer or no redirects. Although the options are indeed few at this point, that very rigidity will ensure maximum compatibility across platforms and services. Although I am not an expert, I believe there is a significant difference between the vcard as currently implemented, and the new .tel domains. The .tel domains are likely to be significantly faster and more reliable to access. Also, look for more implementations of this (DNS-based) concept to come. While .tel may or may not be the wave of the future, something similar most definitely will be. Imagine an OpenID-style, DNS-based identity for example. The .tel is not just the crippled vanity domain you made it out to be - it is a radical new concept worth keeping an eye on. I'm a little surprised to see RWW so dismissive of it... perhaps you were in a hurry when you investigated?