In order for the .tel domain to succeed it has to overcome some obstacles. .tel is the first domain to try and change the perception of what domains mean. A .tel domain isn’t about a web page, it’s about your identity. With a .tel domain you can show people who you are with one address. One address that can instantly link to anything that you have created, anything with which you are associated and any way in which you would like to communicate. That is pretty cool.

The problem is that the World of domains is inherently techy, so when you are trying to explain them to someone, if that person does not have an interest in technology, they will likely lose interest, once they detect the technical nature of the topic.

Some people still have a technology block in their brain. Even though people make use of technology daily, they still resist it in many forms.

.tel domain ownership needs to become non-techy for the general public to care. By nature, .tel is a fundamentally different domain. You may be able to do the same things .tel can do on another domain, but you can NOT do what other domains do on a .tel.

What does that mean?

It means .tel domains are not meant for technical people. .tel domains are meant to bring ALL forms of communication together. This includes the World Wide Web but it is not exclusive to web pages.

Right now, the only reason you would want a domain is to build a website. If you don’t need a website, you don’t need a domain. With .tel, a person with no website can use a .tel domain.

A person with personal profiles, photo albums, playlists and forum memberships could certainly benefit from having a .tel domain. A person with no web page, but several phone numbers and e-mail addresses could certainly benefit from a .tel domain.

The average consumer doesn’t want to deal with DNS, web sites, HTML, etc., etc. And if they want the benefits of the web for personal use, they’ll use FB or MS or blog or IM or VoIP or send e-mail, or, or, or. Where this can get complicated is in keeping track of all of these web pages, profiles, e-mails, etc.

Profiles, IM, file sharing and other services are what people use on a personal level. They are easy, cool and fun. Domains aren’t fun. They are not really much of a service, they are a commodity, a product, a responsibility. In comparison to a personal profile, the work to reward ratio is not worth the bother for the average person.

Blogging brought personal websites to a new level of perception. At first, people questioned the value of having a blog. Now people question why you would not have a blog. Microblogging has spawned a whole new subset of communications. Add in social bookmarking, photo sharing, personal profiles and the list gets long very quickly. With a .tel domain all of these things can be brought together into one single location that represents who you are.

The real trick is to make owning a domain cool, fun and exciting but also easy to manage, build and share. When owning your own domain and website becomes as easy as setting up a blog or profile, then the general public will take notice. A .tel domain has the potential to do this and make owning a domain kewl.