Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Sometimes one needs a lexicon to decipher the perfectly massaged texts presented by corporations on their web sites. This is the case with the FAQ section on the .tel Registry’s web site, TelNIC.org

I will attempt to explain what each grand statement means, in plain “domainese”:

All existing Top Level Domains (e.g. .com, .net, .org, .fr, .mobi…) serve the same purpose: they map domain names to web sites. Google, etc. must read .com, etc. and try to find the contact information as each website is different. This guessing by search engines misses contact information and/or does not find the right contact information.

The “right contact information” exists on active web sites, if their owner chooses to set it up on a web page. Which they might decide not to do, for reasons of their own. Search engines don’t “guess” contact information. There is a separate space, WHOIS, for domain ownership information and it’s widely accessible by free tools.

.tel maps domain names to contact information and keywords stored directly in the DNS, enabling companies to use the DNS as a data store.

Essentially, you surrender your contact info to a glorified Yellow Pages database and you allow the .tel Registry to do as they please with it.

.tel offers you an entry into the first global directory, allowing you to own and control all your contact information and update it in real-time whenever you wish. By contrast to existing directory services that are highly fragmented and very expensive, the .tel provides worldwide coverage, full control and real-time updating for only a fraction of the cost.

People use the following free services to publish, control and share their contact information: MySpace, Facebook, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN Live, LinkedIn, Skype, Twitter. There is no fragmentation and there is certainly no registration fees. Furthermore, on these free services people can share images, video, music, files and can collaborate, present and update all their contact info.

The .tel enables you to create a fully interactive and live communications hub to take control over how and where customers communicate with you. Using YourCompany.tel, you can publish all your means of communication, for example: phone, mobile, fax, premium numbers, VoIP and IM handles and email addresses. You can also store web links, geo-location data and keywords describing your business.

You can have a free page on MySpace that does all that and more. You can also have a full-fledged website that contains your up-to-date contact information and you can format it the exact way you want it. It’s accessible from all over the world.

What is .tel? The .tel is a service that allows individuals and businesses alike to store and manage all their contact information and keywords directly in the DNS without the need to build, host or manage a website.

That would have been interesting in 1994. Fifteen years later, there are plenty of free services and free tools to do exactly that – and more.

Why is .tel different than other Top Level Domains (TLDs)? The value of a .tel domain lies with the ability to host personal (or corporate) contact information directly in the DNS, which can then be universally accessible. This stands in contrast to the typical use of the DNS for other TLDs, in which the DNS only provides a mapping between domain names and IP addresses.

By submitting your information to the .tel Registry you become part of a Yellow Pages book that offers no benefits over a typical web site page. When the paradigm works, why change it?

Can I protect my private data? The .tel enables you to protect your private data, allowing it to be seen only by people you authorize. For more information, please see How do I protect my Private Data.

That’s exactly what you can do on Facebook and other social networking sites and you don’t have to pay a dime.

I remember the day I got my first phone number and was listed in the White Pages. Then thirty days later, the bill arrived in the mail and I realized it was not as much fun. In the early 90′s I got an email address and in the mid-90s an ICQ number. That’s all I needed so that my friends could reach me electronically.

Fast forward to 2009. The .tel TLD is a month away from “general avaialbility”, having gone through the sunrise and landrush periods. To those uneducated souls that spent $200+ for three years of registration fees during landrush, I will say “poor suckers”.

Do people ever RTFM ?

My combined status as a web developer and domainer allows me to speak with twice the authority. I would not touch the .tel with the proverbial 10-foot pole, unless the .tel Registry changed their functionality plan.

What were they thinking?

The .tel TLD is not your average new domain TLD. You can’t point it to a web page, you cannot park it. All you can do is enter your contact info into a system database / form and it will be displayed as a pretty web page, beautiful icons and all. That’s right. Pay up, “poor sucker” to have a page with 1% the capabilities of a free MySpace page so that you can give that address to friends, family and business contacts.

Did I forget to mention you can’t add any images to it? You want an mp3 playing in the background? Sorry .tel was designed with Spartans in mind. It’s black soup again for supper, Leonidas.

The .tel Registry plays down on all these “concerns” of ours and plays up various reports and press releases from around the world about how .tel is about to change the Internet. Meanwhile, the “poor suckers” that rushed to buy .tel domains en masse now realize that their expensive booty is worthless. It’s all fool’s gold and not a single .tel doubloon can pass the biting test.

Meanwhile, I can still type http://icq.com/11802590 and my ICQ contact info comes up. And it’s all free to keep.

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