by Scott Smith (Published with permission at telsters.com)
The late 90’s ushered in one of the most prominent “they were the best of times, they were the worst of times” eras the world has seen. The widespread acceptance of the then infant Internet as a creditable place to do business underpinned a modern day gold rush of epic proportions. Millions of new “surfers” went online and quickly became intoxicated by the ease at which they could communicate and buy and sell goods and services online. The true Internet boom had begun. Billions of dollars of profits were generated, seemingly out of thin air, as entrepreneurs exploited the power bestowed on them by fat cat venture capitalists and few well-chosen letters to the left of the dot in “dot com”. The Internet went mainstream and the dot com TLD extension was quickly established as the 800 lb. gorilla with domain names often changing hands for multi-millions of dollars.
But as is often the case, in a relative heartbeat, in March of 2000, the boom … bust. The bubble burst.
Poof.
Since then, with lessons learned, the rebuilding began. Over the last nine years generations of people have ingrained the progeny of the Internet into the fabric of their daily lives. One would be hard pressed to find someone who has never heard of, or are members one or more of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and hundreds of other social networks. Add to that all of the associated tubes, mash-ups, wikis, rss feeds, IMs, iTunes, text messages, tweets, blogs, pokes, flickrs, smileys, screen names, passwords, phone numbers and the like, it’s no wonder we’re submerged (or sinking) in a dysfunctional communications funk. We’re in a virtual communications Armageddon.
Surely there is a way to simplify this whole communications mess?
Enter the dot com killer. Welcome simplicity. Welcome Dot-tel.
Dot-tel (.tel) is the new kid on the block, the new ICANN approved TLD that will revolutionize the way we communicate. .tel will push the boundaries of communications and the internet to the next level, putting the power back into the hands of the individual when it comes to using and sharing contact information.
.tel domains enable you to store contact information, keywords and location
information and to publish it to the internet quickly and securely without having to build a website.
Henri Asseily CTO and Chief Strategist at Telnic, the. tel registry, is widely quoted today saying,
“This fundamental change in the use of the internet will break open the ability for anyone to now own a domain and be found from any device. This is the biggest innovation to hit the internet and communications and it seems fitting that we have achieved this on the 133rd anniversary of the first use of the telephone. From today, people will be able to dial a .tel name to connect with people. The future of communications is now wide open to innovation.”
Skeptics may chime in saying that – “What do you expect from a Telnic exec, surely they have to sing the praises of their new product. They need to push a ton of domains to recoup their multi-year, multi-million dollar investment”
That may be so. But here are only a few reasons why I think that .tel will be a smashing success:
.tel domains are unique: .tel is the only TLD extension designed from the ground up link directly to contact information stored in the DNS
.tel domains save money: .tel domains do not require websites to be built and hosted and aside from annual renewals, there are no fees for ongoing maintenance and development
.tel domains are easy to use: a .tel domain can be populated within minutes with all types of contact information, including the use of premium rate telephone numbers, payment via SMS premium rate short codes for content downloads and links to e-commerce sites ranging from third-party hosted auction pages through to fully-fledged e-commerce shops
.tel domains will be difficult to cybersquat: .tel domains can only be registered by registrants who provide at least one piece of verifiable contact information. Violators can quickly be identified and actions undertaken by the appropriate authorities
.tel domains have already been purchased by the big players: The New York City Police, American Idol, the X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, Australian Idol, Pop Idol, Star Academy, BBC, BSkyB, Virgin Media, ITV, Fox, CBS, Discovery, HBO, MTV, Canal+, the Movie Channel, Yellow Pages and thousands of major corporations from around the world.
I could go with many more examples but let me share perhaps the single biggest reason why I think .tel will, over time, leave all other domain extensions floundering in its wake.
I have been a professional domainer for nearly 10 years. I have witnessed and/or actively participated in all of the new domain releases dating back to the 2002 .US landrush (which NeuStar thoroughly cocked up), up to and including .biz, .info, .eu, .asia, .name, .asia, .me and dozens of others.
In all of my years of domaining I have never seen a registry so proactively reach out and engage their audience like Telnic has. Having taken a page from the respective books that made the MySpace’s and the Facebook’s of the world so wildly popular, Telnic is embracing the community, joining the blogs and forums, asking people for their input and feedback and actually following up on promises to make the changes that will make .tel more user-friendly and ultimately more valuable for everyone. Senior executives actually return phone calls and emails, often within minutes of being sent.
Let me repeat – they follow up. Man is that refreshing! These guys make many of the executives at some of the other registries (NeuStar, listen to your colleagues!), look like buffoons.
I’ll finish with this anecdote. The aforementioned Henri Asseily, CTO of Telnic weighed in on a thread posted at www.telsters.com, the leading .tel forum, thusly. Henri answered the technical question posed and ended with this comment:
“Maybe once the community starts growing a bit we should have a simple poll.”
What a concept! Let’s ask the community what they want and see if we can make it work. Pure genius.
OK, so after this next proclamation, it’s highly likely that my fellow domainers will take up a collection to have the men in the white coats come and drag me off to the loony bin. But here goes…
I predict that within 4-6 years the .com TLD will be usurped from it’s lofty perch and be forever supplanted by .tel or one of its innovative contemporary TLDs.
Scott Smith is a professional domainer and President of TelCartel (www.telcartel.com), a registered reseller of domains which specializes in the distribution and promotion of .tel domains.
Telnic is the registry for .tel ( www.telnic.com).
Tags: articles, communications, domain, domainer, domaining, dot-tel.tel, extension, Facebook, ICANN, Linked In, MySpace, news, opinions, profits, services, tld, Twitter, wireless
.tel a dotcom killer.
Now that’s rubbish.
[...] what do you think about this article ? R.I.P. Dot Com. We barely Knew Ye! [...]
[...] makers of .tel reckon that .tel domains could be as big as .com. We’re not going to be as bullish as .tel’s inventors because the invention of .com was [...]
How much is Telnic paying you to write this crap?
What a laughable argument. You invested in the garbage of TLDs apparently (your list, not mine) and suddenly think yours is a game-changer. Big players buy in at every landrush, they protect their brands, it’s one of the reasons they are pissed off at the opening up of gTLDs. The hard to cybersquat argument… right… because cybersquatters can’t provide ‘verifiable’ information? Demand Media has developed a .TV platform. The idea of a way to sort your information isn’t new, there doesn’t appear to be any novel thinking to this project. Prediction: Google beats you in managing people’s lives, because that is their market and you don’t stand a chance against the 8000 lb gorilla (no typo). .COM, NET, ORG will still be the top gTLDs because that is where real business is done and have trillions of dollars of branding that you simply can’t compete with.
.TEL is overhyped and will Fail due to many reasons.
For personal use:
1) People don’t want others to see all of their contact information. Sure, there is a way to display your contacts only to the ones you authorize, but then (if you so the .tel commercial with the lady and the train) the whole idea of just giving a stranger your domain.tel fails
2) .Tel doesn’t offer any type of communication. It’s just data storage. There are free places like Facebook and MySpace that offer not only your personal data online, but also ability to communicate right in the system, send files, music, videos, lins etc. With .TEL you can only see the information (you still require to have a working mail client on the computer you are using to send e-mails, or use Skype)
3) People are different and they want to customize their pages. To those who want only to show their contact info (and have the ability to display photos as well), get YOURNAME.com and it will work just fine.
For Businesses:
1) .TEL is basically an open ground for bots, to harvest for data (which can be used for commercial purposes).
2) With GoogleMaps being on almost all modern cell phones, there is a lot more things you can do with that. My phone can get my geolocation (via AGPS), show me the nearest business of my interest and how i can get there. Google can search not only by address, but by business name and even business category as well (and data you receive as a result can be customized by the business with pictures, info etc). Can .TEL do that? No! .TEL will point you to GoogleMaps for directions, which is basically an extra step, instead of just going to GoogleMaps right away.
3) Once the .TEL became available, a lot of people registered .tel, like geocities.tel, espn.tel, even though they are not the business owners. Which means that at this moment, the business Contact Information is simply invalid and is populated by speculators. So instead of having a good business directory with all the business contact data we need, we are left with tons of rubbish information that people entered. Therefore the whole purpose of .TEL being a business directory has been destroyed mins after the .TEL registration was made available.
My own thoughts:
.TEL does NOT let you change anything. The landing pages look terrible and very limited. The .TEL logo is bigger than anything else. Why would i want to advertise my domain registrar on my contact us page? That’s retarded. Also, with .TEL you don’t buy the domain, you buy a name + hosting.. you can’t change DNS.
Men, good article.
Another point : you can not have virus with .tel !
.com and .tel are not competitor man, it is made for differen use.
Just shows what a great job Telnic has done brainwashing the easily influenced domainers, especially the desperate ones and the newbs that think they can make a quick buck.
Quite possibly the most ridiculous crap I’ve ever seen in regards to .tel…which is saying something considering the garbage that is peddled on the forums.
Redundant to the nth degree, this extension was stillborn from release.
In response to Boris’s comments
1) People don’t want others to see all of their contact information. Sure, there is a way to display your contacts only to the ones you authorize, but then (if you so the .tel commercial with the lady and the train) the whole idea of just giving a stranger your domain.tel fails
>>>With this comment you say that people don’t want others to see their contact information. The truth is some people do and some people don’t. Some people such as myself don’t mind having my telephone number open to the public. The white pages have thousands of peoples telephone numbers exposed next to their real names how is this different? With a .TEL if your telephone number gets spammed by telemarketers you can change your telephone number without having to tell everyone that you have a new number.
>>>You further contradict what your saying in the next sentence when you say that the user has control to protect data by allowing authorization to restricted crowds.
2) .Tel doesn’t offer any type of communication. It’s just data storage. There are free places like Facebook and MySpace that offer not only your personal data online, but also ability to communicate right in the system, send files, music, videos, lins etc. With .TEL you can only see the information (you still require to have a working mail client on the computer you are using to send e-mails, or use Skype)
>>>.COM and every other domain name is also a data storage. You miss the point of .TEL which isn’t to act as a website but rather to act as a fast, userfriendly, structured way to get a hold of services quickly. In your logic above people have to be in front of a computer, log into their sites and then communicate with people using the website. With this same logic I could argue that .TEL offers the ability to communicate using the oldest technology around with the click of a button. Our telephone system.
You really can’t argue that your methods above are a quicker way to communicate.
>>>.TEL has a place where you can list webpages if you wish to get more data. Most of the time however people just want the service. If I want a taxi in Toronto, I don’t want to visit a website and look for the contact information. Pictures and videos on the site are of no use.
>>>What will happen is most companies will have their .TEL tool set up with direct communication methods and links to the main website. On the flip side of things the website will have on the contact page the easy to remember .TEL domain for the benefits this can offer. The author of this arcticle has some very interesting points however he is dead wrong saying that .COM will be replaced. .TEL will work in sequence with websites and telephones etc. There may however be some companies/people that use only .TEL since they don’t need to display additional content (pictures, videos etc.)
3) People are different and they want to customize their pages. To those who want only to show their contact info (and have the ability to display photos as well), get YOURNAME.com and it will work just fine.
>>>You are wrong. I don’t want to show my pictures, videos. Most personal users don’t want a webpage. Webpages are mainly for companies. The reason the pages are not customized is that this system was created with one generic structure for quick usability. When you type in a .TEL you know what you are getting and what you can expect. You don’t have to search a page looking for a ‘Contact Us’ button. If you wanted a customized page you would buy a .com and set up a website that is connected to your .TEL.
>>>The biggest mistake I find is that people mistake the .TEL tool with websites. .TEL is a quick, easy to use directory that can hook up to your personal or business webpage.
For Businesses:
1) .TEL is basically an open ground for bots, to harvest for data (which can be used for commercial purposes).
>>>I’ve heard this arguement many times but it is flawed. First of all any computer expert will tell you that bots can and are already do this by grabbing information from websites and storing them in databases. What is more scarey is the bots that are grabbing in large quantities information from social networking sites and historically saving this data for future selling.
>>>Another thing to keep note of is the fact that when you buy a .COM you must give accurate information for the WHOIS. Most people have purchased a domain at some point in their life and there are sites that have collected this information with bots. I work for a PI firm and pay for this information to get information on people. You’d be surprised at how much information people have online that is being stored in databases for future use. At least .TEL gives you some control of this information and allows you to change this information easily if the data becomes a problem.
>>>With .TEL if I put my telephone number up and a bot takes this number along with other telephone numbers what will happen? I could change my telephone number tomorrow and everyone that has my .TEL will have my new number updated and everyone that does not have my .TEL will have to get a hold of me to find out my new numer. In this scenario I would just direct people that aren’t familiar with my .TEL to my .TEL. They could just use an internet browser to see my new number.
2) With GoogleMaps being on almost all modern cell phones, there is a lot more things you can do with that. My phone can get my geolocation (via AGPS), show me the nearest business of my interest and how i can get there. Google can search not only by address, but by business name and even business category as well (and data you receive as a result can be customized by the business with pictures, info etc). Can .TEL do that? No! .TEL will point you to GoogleMaps for directions, which is basically an extra step, instead of just going to GoogleMaps right away.
>>>When you do that in a few years what will happen is you will see the .TEL domain as the way to contact that business that you have conveniently found close to you. This is another common mistake people are making about .TEL thinking that it is in opposition to .COM or opposition to Google technologies. I believe that Google has a vested interest in making .TEL a success. Google search engine algorithms have already given much weight to .TEL in their search results.
>>>Proof look at a search for ‘henri’ on Google.com. This technology is only months old.
>>>Most searches for services don’t require finding the closest company. If I am in a small town outside of the city and want a high profile lawyer I don’t want my next door rookie neighbour practicing law. Besides local searches are becoming more and more tainted by companies that are pretending to reside in optimal locations but don’t reside in that location.
>>>One final note. If I were to do a local search for a flower shop using Google maps and found a shop with NewYorkFlowers.tel. The next time I am trying to buy flowers I may bypass doing the local search since I can remember the telephone number/communication easily. Not always do people want to view photos. Many people want quick access.
3) Once the .TEL became available, a lot of people registered .tel, like geocities.tel, espn.tel, even though they are not the business owners. Which means that at this moment, the business Contact Information is simply invalid and is populated by speculators. So instead of having a good business directory with all the business contact data we need, we are left with tons of rubbish information that people entered. Therefore the whole purpose of .TEL being a business directory has been destroyed mins after the .TEL registration was made available.
>>>This is similar to other domains, cash parking or pages with nothing. However over time what you see with other domain names is that big companies buy up these domain names and point them to relevant information or domainers point them to something that is relevant. If I own NewYorkFlowers.tel what would be the use in me pointing it to something that isn’t relevant? Why not point it to a flower shop in New York so that I can build a crowd of people that use it on a regular basis. At this point the flower shop I point it to would recognize the importance and would be willing to pay for this.
As with other domains, cash parking is usually the first stage. The second stage is to point a domain to an applicable result/company that will pay you affiliate dollars. The final stage is to develop the domain name into what people are looking for or to sell it to someone that is big enough that deals with this product/service.
Over time all .com’s will show applicable results but in the case of .TEL I expect this to happen quicker because of the time/cost factor in setting these domains up.
>>>Another thing to take note of is Jepaa the first search engine for .TEL. I am amazed at how rapidly these domains are being developed pointing to applicable results. A quick search will show you what I mean.
My own thoughts:
.TEL does NOT let you change anything. The landing pages look terrible and very limited. The .TEL logo is bigger than anything else. Why would i want to advertise my domain registrar on my contact us page? That’s retarded. Also, with .TEL you don’t buy the domain, you buy a name + hosting.. you can’t change DNS.
>>>The landing pages don’t look that terrible. They are a structured familiar way allowing for maximum usability. Your talking as though a .TEL page is a website or competes with websites.
>>> There are many reasons you will put your future .TEL on your websites contact us page as well as hook your website up to your future .TEL.
>>>With the .TEL you do not buy the .TEL domain with hosting. No hosting is needed. This leads to tons of advantages such as no hosting costs as well as quicker access to .TEL pages. Take this example. Say I wanted to cancel my mastercard because it was stolen. From my cell phone I would first have to find the website. Then go to the main website. Since the main website is on hosting I would have to wait while all of the images are downloaded and the site is visible which is also data costly on my phone bill. From here I have to search the page on a small screen for the naviagtion buttons that would direct me to a number I can call to cancel my card. As I’m flipping from page to page I have to wait for each page to load.
>>>Once I have found the number, on many occasions you have to find a pencil and pen to write down the number. Then I can call and cancel my card.
>>>Now try Cancel.TEL and tell me which one is easier and cheaper? In a year from now say you lost your mastercard again. What are the odds of you remembering cancel.TEL over the first scenario website, route to website or telephone number you called to cancel your mastercard?
I have been domaining for over 15 years and have one of the largest collections in the world. I never bought a .me, .biz, .net etc. I always look at usability first and foremost and then the speed to develop comes into play. .TEL has a ton of potential.
By the way to the person that said that Telnic is doing an excellent job brainwashing people. Hell they definitely have me brainwashed. I think that we have only scratched the surface of what this domain will offer.
The benefits will outweight the small negatives.
I’ve also noticed people in my town are using .TEL’s in their print advertising which is a sign that maybe the quantity of brainwashed people is multiplying.