One of the central features of Chi.mp is that it lets you to assume different personas (public, work, friends). With the current update, Chi.mp, for example, gives you the option publish new blog posts and albums that are either public, or only visible to your work contacts or friends. The new blog editor is basic, but it does the trick. Chi.mp, however, can't yet replace other minimalist blogging services like Tumblr or Posterous.

You can now also set a different theme for each of your personas. Chi.mp gives you 15 default themes and you can also upload your own backgrounds to the service.

The new photo album feature is a bit of a disappointment, however, as it can only handle relatively small images. We couldn't find any exact information about the limits that Chi.mp is enforcing here, but we weren't able to upload any images bigger than two megabytes.

Send Updates to Twitter and Facebook

Maybe the most important update is that Chi.mp can now push status updates to Twitter and Facebook. We assume Chi.mp is using Facebook's new API for publishing these updates.

It's Getting There

With these updates, Chi.mp is inching closer to fulfilling its promise of delivering a centralized hub for your online personas and life-stream.

Until now, we mostly used Chi.mp as an OpenID provider, but thanks to these updates, we will probably start to use it for the rest of its functions as well.

Sadly, Chi.mp is is still invite-only and we haven't heard anything about when it will come out of beta. We have had a grand total of three invites left at this point. Just send an email to chimp AT frederic.otherinbox.com if you want one.

In some respects, these domains are similar to GoDaddy's SmartSpace or Chi.mp, only that these two products are far more flexible.

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.