.TEL, one of a stream of new top level domain dames approved by the quasi-governmental Los Angeles-based ICANN, will go on sale shortly. Like other domain name types, you’ll be able to buy your .TEL at your favorite domain name registrar (eNom, Godaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, etc.).
You can start buying the domains in March, for something above the wholesale price of $10. Here’s what you get: a page hosted by Telnic (the company behind .Tel) that includes your name, phone number, fax number, email, and other links you want to add. You can’t add pictures (or, if you are a business, logos) to the site. An example, with the data from Telnic itself, is here.
The data is public, but you can choose to hide some of the data and show it just to friends, which must also have a .TEL address. The idea is you don’t need to give out a business card to people, you just tell them your .TEL address. It sounds official because it’s a sanctioned domain name. But in reality it’s just another startup that paid a fee to ICANN for the right to sell you a web page that has all your personal information published on it.
The period from now until March when the domains go on sale in general is a special time that domain registrars get to shake down trademark holders, who’ll pay $400/year to reserve their names in the system. Trademark holders don’t want these domains, but they pay to avoid letting others get them. So Apple, for example, will likely shell out thousands of dollars to register all their trademarks so that no one else can get them. After this early period, it’s anything goes, and people can register and use whatever they want.
There is nothing that .TEL does that Facebook and other services don’t do already (and better). Nor is .TEL somehow more trustworthy because it has ICANN’s backing – ICANN is notorious for approving just about any new project as long as they get their fees (ICANN was in favor of creating a special porn domain name until the U.S. Senate suggested it might be a bad idea). And users will also need to buy the domain names through registrars, which are notorious for abusing user trust.
In other words, these are the last people you want to be holding all of your personal information.
Spammers dream come true
%100 true, so how much fuck.tel worth now ?
dont.tel
From Kaspersky Lab: “Along with antivirus companies around the world, we’re faced with the task of cracking the RSA 1024-bit key. This is a huge cryptographic challenge. We estimate it would take around 15 million modern computers, running for about a year, to crack such a key.”
So you should probably be safe from spam for a little while.
Personally, I’m happy with my Chi.mp account, where I can aggregate my feeds and even include a photo.
The last thing we need is another TLD, there are already too many.
From a lowest common denominator perspective…. it’s got some appeal. Marketed correctly I could see this working.
And I wanted to test facebook connect. Wishing I had some cool facebook name right about now….
Yet, another TLD no one needs.
What is wrong with ICANN!?
Good call
Moneyspinner
No other value here
These domain “pages” are like the new yellowbook crap – open the tld or get lost
worthless
$ grep ‘tel\>’ /usr/share/dict/words
Though that doesn’t pick up Intel and all the other folks with tel in their names that might want to be $400 less rich/clever
This sounds pretty close to what I think OpenID should do: personal info syndication. This would allow people to include themselves in various social nets without having to create a frickin’ profile every time, effectively “subscribing” themselves into social networks. The value-add for social networks becomes the connections that they foster in whatever environment they cultivate. Basically, a commodification of the various pieces of Facebook (and others): You provide the identity, they provide the groups, the relationships, the walls, the app platforms, the context. Anyway, it’ll be awhile before they break open like that, if they ever do.
Here is a company that I believe has the best “mouse trap” for a mobile Payment Gateway:
The payment gateway that the Company TreasureCom is offering is one based on a mobile platform tied to the online shopping cart.
The basic advantages for a Merchant:
• Payment are in real time
• Relatively very small cost to implement and for merchants that already uses online payment gateways such as PayPal the implementation may take as little as 1 hour.
• It will cost the merchant less, given that the interchange rate would be 1% instead of the current interchange rate most merchant pays (which I would be willing to guess is much more than 1%, I would guess between 2%-3.5%). This 1% interchange rate would no doubt provide the merchant with a lot of savings and in an economy like this and based on what is happening with credit cards at the moment this is an area where the merchants may save money and any savings today I am sure would be welcomed by the Merchant.
• The funds would be credited directly to Merchant’s bank account within 3 banking days by way of the ACH network very much the same as the current methods.
For the customers there are at least a few advantages.
• The customer will not need to provide either the payment processor (TreasureCom) or the Merchant his/her banking/credit/debit card information. The customer would “push” funds directly from his her online banking facilities hence negating the need to provide banking/credit/debit card information. We are aware that a lot of customers are a bit concern about online security. This method would greatly address that concern.
• The payment transaction is generated by the customer from his/her mobile phone using text messaging and the member then may go online to complete the transaction not dissimilar to the experience of shopping with a credit/debit card.
• It would cost the customer approximately $0.55 ($0.30 by my company and approximately $0.25 by the mobile carrier to process).
Initially only customers that use AT&T or T-Mobile are be able to participate but within a three month period the company expect that all mobile carrier networks within the USA would be supported.
Does this mean that Intel can have Intel.tel or In.tel?
*smacksheadagainstwall*
You may not like this approach, but the web needs something like this. Whoever get’s the formula right will be very successful.
Everyone should have their own personal URL that never changes. We need a master directory in the sky that we will update whenever we change email addresses, or telephone numbers, or physical address, or employer.
Isn’t this exactly the same as the older and equally unsuccessful .name?
And very similar to the reason for .me, which was slightly more successful than .name I believe.
Nope, it’s even lamer than .name was. .name at least let users set up their own content on domains. .tel locks registrants into the goofy .tel-hosted white pages format.
(Or at least it will until they realize that’s not profitable, give up, and make it just another unrestricted domain. ICANN should be ashamed of itself for continually approving trick domains that nobody wants.)
.tel has a better “ring” to it than .me or .name.
ewww…..
And what makes it featureless? let’s wait few years to decide that
Can’t see much use for this. Maybe when it starts running it will become clearer.
Ummm..with the exception of the TLD, isn’t this something any high school kid with half a brain could whip up in PHP in like 30 minutes?
FRIEND: How do I get in touch with you?
YOU: Check out my ALLMY.INFO page at http://allmy.info/georgebusy
I mean, really, a TLD for this crap??
Really dumb idea. ICANN should have never agreed to giving the company so much control of the TLD in the first place.
Fucking useless.
Isn’t the secret sauce that it updates data directly to the DNS server network, so no web services are needed?
This is so fucking late 90’s. The thing about a well polished turd is that it is still a turd.
Next.
hey facebook connect is cool though!
I think we should wait a couple years. This could turn out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. The advantage that it has by being a TLD is that as a developer you don’t have to interact with Facebook or MySpace or any other API for that matter in order to get the information you need. Now, this all depends on whether or not people end up using the service. But my money’s on the fact that if enough developers get behind it, we can finally get our data off the social networks and somewhere RELATIVELY neutral.
I’m not saying ICANN is full of saints, but do we really want the Facebooks, the M$, and the MySpaces of the world controlling such basic data about us until the end of time? I think our personal information deserves something a little more neutral than that.
(I say this as I use Facebook Connect).
Hi,
How short-sighted do Techcrunch’ers want to be?
Yes, this is like dot.name and dot.me, except that it multi-platform.
Unlike Facebook Connect and it’s peers, it’s also not proprietary, in the way they’re a black-hole.
People seem to have made their judgments by looking at the profile page linked above, in a few seconds, but the point is, that in the future all our communications for everyone will be IP-based, and by giving out the dot.tel address people will be able to contact other people without recourse to specific platforms or service suppliers, much like a “follow-me” number or the less advanced Grand Central.
They’ll get connected whatever way they choose and is available.
Yours kindly,
Shakir Razak
I want someone to be able to give me their easy to remember name/handle/ID, key it into my Blackberry once, and instantly have have their contact information available so it takes me just one click to send them an e-mail, call them, visit their blog/site/Facebook profile or view their office location on a map.
From that point on I want it to automatically update and synchronize on every address book I have including Outlook. And of course, when I reciprocally give out my name/handle/ID, I want to control exactly who sees what, with only a couple of seconds of management.
I don’t care what underlying technology does this as long as it’s reliable, safe and I have full control and ownership. If there really is something other than .TEL that offers this (free or not) please let me know.
I’m still trying to absorb all the information. I think its a great concept for trademark companies that want to provide an easy access for their contact on mobile devices. Otherwise, I’m still struggling to understand it. Oh, and can it be optimized for search if there is no html code involved? hmm…
ICANN approve it on may 2006. The request was on 2000.
Old Times…
http://news.cne..._3-6072888.html
For more info about the .tel, join the facebook page:
http://www.face...ain/23548413959
or LinkedIn Group:
http://www.link...&gid=770077
Hey people,
You speak about facebook connect, microsoft passport/live solution, openid, … all of these are effectively also plateforms to store your personnal information.
BUT, the real difference, is that information in .tel is not owned by any company nor government, you don’t need to wory about whether someone can access your data or not, whether a company may exploit them to sell them or not, …
In fact, noone owns your information but you, as it is directly stored in the DNS with a 1024bits encryption system.
The encryption system garanties you a very secure way to store and share your contact information.
You manage every information as you want : you have a public profile and as many private profiles as you want, since you can personnalize information access for each contact.
I really think that .tel is the first legitimate solution to store your personnal information, that can be used as a business card, or as a login system that shares information you allow with every websites you decide.
And you right, it is not possible to store multimedia content in .tel. .tel is a structured page directly stored in the DNS which means that every software, terminal or service can use the information very easily.
Actually, .tel links an address to an identity, other extensions such as .com, .net, … links an address to a website.
I support .tel as I see it as a really new opportunity, both for me and my company.
It can be use as :
- a businesss card easy to remember and secured
- a public directory for compagnies, with limited information
- an internal directory secured and linked to the information system
- and, moreover, .tel is optimized for search engine, as Google shows .tel results in the first position
So please stop blaming this new extension !!! .tel is really not another one like .com, .name or .me. It’s something else…
“moreover, .tel is optimized for search engine, as Google shows .tel results in the first position”
I think you think you know more about Google than you actually know.
the price is too high.
a complete waste of time, for everyone involved. if you look they say you dont need hosting etc, there are a few gimmicks that most people wont bother with or care, or be able to understand. its also extremely expensive. imho a complete waste of time.
I cannot see the advantagesover anything else out there? Am I missing something?
@june
I can see that it is not obvious for everybody to understand the value of storing info within the DNS servers. Nevertheless, what Telnic did with .tel is opening a new way of using DNS and NAPTER records. Now any individual can be part of the network and control its personal info. A .tel has nothing to do with a normal domain for websites it allows to store info and to be contacted for example directly from any SIP softphone by calling YourName.tel I believe it is the first domain for communications but that its framework could be used by other domains to do the same.
Well, from what Ive seen, many negative responses to this great idea, seem to come from people who appear to not really grasp the mechanics of .tel and how it will revolutionise communications on the internet (which is very messy). Facebook and the like are closed websites, meaning you need to become a member before even accessing someone’s info. Dot tel will be used by business before mainstream for sure but Im sure the time may well come when you will be even typing in a dot tel before a dot com (IMHO)
Why Pay?
At the risk of disagreeing with Michael Arrington and looking stupid, I think dot tel has real value in the way in which you can organise your personal information, display it and have it accessed.
Where I agree with him is that its too expensive. From what I have seen, it’s going to be more than $10 even during the General Availability phase that starts in March.
Whilst dot tel is undoubtedly a clever system, they are still asking people to pay a not unsubstantial annual recurring charge indefinitely – when you can currently just use other free online address books, where you can be found via Google on a name search. Most people use Google when they want to find other people.
For instance, you can get a free listing at WikiWorldBook which enables you to be easily found via Google, and messaged via the website. You can publish as much or as little of your contact information as you want.
The website’s message gateway allows users to be contacted without having to reveal their email address. After checking any messages for spam, the message system forwards on the messages to the registered user’s email account, so they don’t have to return to the site. Uniquely, the person contacting them doesn’t have to be registered, thus enabling people to reconnect as easily as possible.
Social networks are still walled gardens – they are not a reliable address book tool where you can be contacted by anyone.
Ben Leefield
CEO
WikiWorldBook
Brilliant idea!! As a company, we have a phone, fax, website, .mobi site, mobile phone, etc. When someone wants to contact us, it is not always to see our photos. They want to e:mail us or call us… This is a great way to go directly to a website with all our information quick and easy to find. Everyone is in such a rush these days, so it is a great way to contact anyone FAST. I think they should put the commercial on television, and it should even win an award. Just my opinion.
so who are this guys talking here? who is the GOD to know if is good or bad? OMG everybody knows everything
.tel naysayers sound like a bunch of stuffy tech geeks who are a little too comfortable with their existing internet world.
You say it is senseless to spend $10 for a .tel domain. Isn’t it more senseless to spend $30 for a box of business cards for an employee, of which he gives out half before you promote or fire him and have to do it all over again for a replacement?
Just because it’s a simple idea, doesn’t mean it’s a stupid one. In fact, usually it’s the opposite.
Of course, it does mean that you can’t gouge small business clients to build a custom website that has this information, or score on your google ads because you built a similar directory site where anyone can simply list (without any legal recourse when you disappear with their info) under the easy to remember url:
mycrappyphpapp.com/listings/smallbusinesses/flowershops/indenver?flowershopid=2409987
cuz that would fit real nicely on a window decal.