Crazier things have happened!

Take the World Wide Web for example. In the early years, the Internet was a bunch of geeks hooking up computers and then publishing information using a cryptic network of tools and technology that few understood. Many naysayers said it was a fad and had limited use, but then hypertext changed all of that. Creating the ability for people to view text in a viewing program and then see more text simply by selecting a link to that text changed the way people interacted with the Internet. The World Wide Web turned the Internet from a network-for-nerds into a mainstream, Wordwide commodity.

Years after along comes “blogging”, the geek term for “web logging” or the practice of posting regularly updated web pages containing seemingly pointless information. For the tech savvy, the technology was a streamlined web page publishing system, and again the naysayers said “no” and questioned why people would want to post or read the regular flow of thoughts from everyday people. Years later, blogging has changed the face of the World Wide Web in many ways. It has created new ways of communicating and has even redefined ways of using the Internet. Content publishing will never be the same thanks to “blogging”.

How about RSS? RSS feeds presented a stripped down version of the information presented in websites, especially blogs. People questioned the value and the naysayers doubted the benefits. Website information stripped of it’s design glory seemed like a counterproductive step in the evolution of the Web, yet RSS feeds prevailed and changed again the face of the Internet. When an attachement was added to an RSS feed another revolution began and it was called “Podcasting”.

In the mix comes social networking sites. Essentially a streamlined way for people to make personal web pages with all of the frills already built in. Was Myspace really that technologically different from Geocities or similar free site hosts? Did anyone really see the rise of Facebook coming? Technology comes in all sizes and shapes, but how it’s packaged and presented makes all of the difference.

Now there’s Twitter, years after Facebook, Myspace and blogging. “Micro-blogging” would seem like one of the most trivial developments to come along yet. Limited text length being the biggest restriction but also potentially it’s biggest strength. How is this technology different from updating your IM or Facebook status? Sure, the functionality of Twitter is easily replicated elsewhere, by other services and by existing technology, yet Twitter has millions of users.

What is the common thread? Why does this happen? Simplicity. Any of the previous success stories can be reduced to “simplicity equals success”. Even though the functionality of those technologies was no different from their predecessors, the general public adopted them. The easier something is to use, the more likely it is that people will use it.

.tel allows for the storage of data within the DNS. The type of data is simple but robust. Accessing the information is simple yet flexible. This technological capability is true for any TLD, but for .tel domains, this is all you are allowed to do. The naysayers now say that you can not make money with dot-tel and that because there are so many limitations on what you can put into a .tel “site”, they are useless.

Without a web page or the ability to change specific types of DNS entries, why would anyone use a .tel domain? .tel offers simplicity. Simplicity in it’s understanding. Simplicity in it’s use. If .tel is able to convey this simplicity and it’s benefits to the masses, dot-tel will surely be a winner.

Hopefully for Telsters, dot-tel will be the next huge dot-com-blogging-social-networking-podcasting-feed on Twitter and then the naysayers can blog about that!