Found blog articles about .tel domains

.tel address can be useful (from Javier Navarro):

I was browsing the web when I came up on a site that was selling the .tel domain name. At first, I was skeptical on the benefits of having a .tel address, but the more I thought about it, it made sense to me. The whole purpose of the the .tel address is that it provides you with a online directory reference that is sorta cheap(Depending on domain registrar)

The reason that it makes sense to me is that it provides you with a simple way to give out your information about you. Unlike a regular website, you could only put basic directory information. Now that is not bad if you think about it. Lets say that you want to show a client multiple sites that you created, many people would get annoyed by telling them to go to multiple sites. Instead you just give them one link with all the information that you want them to know. This is important because lets say if you give them a test/blog site like this one where you are constantly changing things in order to test out new technologies, well this can prove to be disastrous if you break the site like I do on a weekly basis. With the .tel you are limited with what you can do since it is meant to serve as a directory. But this is good because like that you only have to give them one site and it will have all the info that you would want to give them. This includes social media addresses, websites, phone numbers, location information, and a short summary about yourself or what it is for.

For example in this picture, it is the directory for mesa community college, it shows there information on how to contact them. now lets say that you are a city or any other person or business, what you can do it put the contact information that you see valuable. this way if you have multiple web site addresses or telephone numbers that you want to make public, now you can give the people a easy way of finding the information that you want them to find without the hassle of having an automated system tell them press 1, press two. This way they can find what they need fast. This is the only reason I find it useful.

I personally have put the .tel address on my business cards. That way if they want other sites or phone numbers about me, they can just go to one simple site and find anything they want about me with less hassle. For businesses purposes, it think that it is a great idea.

If you go to name.com, you can get one right now for 10 bucks. network solutions currently wants 50 for it. For ten bucks it is not that bad for a simple SEO boost.

Heck many people get a regular site just for the purpose of putting their basic info online. This can be a cheaper alternative if your whole purpose is just to put your info online.

Is a Dot Tel Worth the Hype? (from Randy Dueck):

Have you been contemplating buying a .tel domain? Before you just in and spend the $20 odd dollars to buy a domain that you think will suddenly give your website a boost, there’s a few things you need to know.

How Google Views .tel

One the big selling points of a .tel domain is the fact that all your information is directly stored in the DNS server settings. That appears to an attractive feature as you don’t need web hosting.

The fact remains that as Google crawls sites, they are looking for fresh updated quality content with the right keywords are added to be listed within the appropriate search criteria by users. Quite simply, a dot tel domain does not do this. So why have one? It really depends on what your objective is.

What’s Your Objective?

If you have a .tel domain, it’s likely that you’ll be promoting it more offline then online. Since Google isn’t going to do too much with it, the real purpose of having a .tel domain is offline.

The question to ask yourself is, “how many businesses, domains, phone numbers do I have?” If you’re involved in a lot of different businesses, online or offline, and you want people that you meet to know about everything that you do, then a dot tel would be the way to go. If you have a primary business that you’re promoting, then I suggest that you don’t bother.

The real idea behind owning a dot tel is to eliminate a hundred different business cards then deciding which one to give people when you meet them. Having a single card that has myname.tel on it can be much more effective and efficient.

I encourage you not to give into the hype. Google isn’t going to help you. You’re not getting the “juice” you think you are. Use it smartly, and it can be effective.

The state of .tel in 2012 (by Andrew Allemann at Domain Name Wire):

It’s still there. Really.

.Tel has been quiet, at least in the domainer community, for quite some time. There are a couple good reasons for this: you can’t park .tel domains and no one is getting rich trying to resell them for a profit.

The company sent out its latest newsletter today and it has some interesting data.

The first thing that caught my eye was that you will soon be able to add video to your site. But it can only be done via API. I’ve long thought that .tel is an over-technicalized solution geared at non-techies, and this is a prime example. Granted, there are plenty of third party solutions to develop your .tel domain. But why is a third party necessary? .Tel should be easy. It’s not.

The video also signals that .tel domains are becoming just a bit more like web pages.

Now, about those numbers. Here’s a handy infographic from .tel.

In 2011, .tel says the “number of members in the .tel community” expanded by 41%.

I’m not quiet sure what “members” mean. Unless the number of registrants increased by a bunch in December, this doesn’t represent total .tel domains. In November 2011, the last month for which official numbers are available, there were 280,502 .tel domains. At the beginning of 2012 there were 256,566.

This certainly isn’t what Telnic investors had in mind when they plowed $35 million into the company.

On the plus side, 79% of the “.tel community” owns just one domain. And as of February there were an impressive 64,274 .tel IDNs.

Telnic: A $35 Million Investment Gone Awry (by Andrew Allemann at Domain Name Wire):

Luck seems to be running out for investors in .tel registry. And it hasn’t even launched yet.

A new top level domain, .tel, is getting ready to rollout in the first part of next year. The registry behind the domain — Telnic — has raised a stunning $35 million in outside capital before even launching the domain name.

.Tel isn’t a traditional domain name where you register it and then put up a parking page or web site. Instead, your .tel domain name is sort of like an online business card with your contact information. You don’t create a web site; it’s all hosted on the DNS. Essentially, .tel will be a yellow pages and white pages.

Here’s the problem. The concept behind .tel was created about a decade ago. That’s before MySpace, Facebook, and a myriad of other social networking technologies made it big. Telnic applied for .tel from ICANN back in 2000, according to a recent BusinessWeek article.

The top level domain finally got approved and now it has been rendered pointless.

Why should people pay to have a “business card on the web” when they can get a free one through a number of other sites?

There’s a network affect here. If everyone has a .tel domain name, the scheme will work. But right now no one has one, and the odds of more people signing up (and paying) for .tel than Facebook is minuscule. If I want to get in touch with someone, odds are better that I’ll find them searching on Facebook than going to someone.tel. (Incidentally, .mobi faces a similar challenge in trying to change behavior. It has to get to a critical mass — quickly — to succeed.)

The fact that your information is managed in the DNS is cool, but end users don’t care. They can’t tell the difference between someone setting up an online address book in the DNS versus on a web site.

Betting $35 million on Telnic is like saying “We’re going to create another cool social network. It will be limited in interaction, but we still need to get tens of millions of people to sign up. Invest $35 million in us on the outside chance we pull it off.”

But that obviously wasn’t the original pitch. Back in 2000 this was novel. But the TLD approval process at ICANN didn’t help Telnic’s chances. By taking so long to approve the application, time passed Telnic by. Now the new top level domain name process is launching, which means that anyone could launch a competing top level domain and launch it in a couple years’ time. And that TLD could be a lot cooler than a short hand term for an antiquated work like “telephone”.

There is a chance — however slight — that .tel will succeed. Telnic will have to do a few things perfectly to get this to work. First, make .tel integrate into third party applications better than Plaxo, LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace currently do. Second, it should give away .tel domains to individuals and hope to make money on businesses instead. It must get to critical mass quickly, so that I have a reasonable belief that typing in myfriend.tel will get me what I want. Third, it needs to pray that Facebook doesn’t kill it overnight by creating some sort of online vcard.