What the .tel?: New Internet top-level domain seeks buyers

Another top-level domain has joined .com, .net, and .org on the Internet, and its backers say it will revolutionize the way we communicate on-line.

That’s because, with a domain name ending in “.tel”, you can store your contact information directly in the Domain Name System. Theoretically, your contacts would just have to know your .tel address and they could find all your details there. You also have the option of providing private data only to people you trust.

You can see how it works by going to the .tel site of Telnic Limited, the operator of the new generic top-level domain.

Registrars will begin selling .tel domains to trademark owners in December, to those willing to pay a premium in February, and to the rest of us in March. Webnames.ca, a Canadian registrar, is offering .tel domains for US$19.99 for the first year (regular US$25 per year).

But, really, .tel isn’t “game-changing”, “the white pages killer”, or “the Google of online address books”, as it’s been called, according to a Telnic press release. It’s just the latest gimmicky domain-name scheme hyped by those hoping to provoke another Internet land rush.

Remember when .name launched? The operator of that top-level domain still calls such domain names the “lifelong address for your Internet identity”.

How about i-names? These extensible resource identifiers are essentially glorified PURLs (Persistent Uniform Resource Locators) for your contact information that can also be used as OpenIDs.

Admittedly, Telnic’s example .tel sites look nice on an iPhone. But you don’t need a fancy .tel address to stick your contact info on the Web. Unless everyone and their dog starts using .tel domains—and that’s highly unlikely—I wouldn’t bother buying in.