Remember.tel? The new Top Level Domain launched earlier this year in a blaze of hype about how it would transform the way we share our contact information online. Eight months on from becoming generally available it’s not exactly fulfilled that promise.
How .tel works
In case it’s passed you by, .tel is basically an online business card. Visit someone’s .tel domain (usually in the format Person’sName.tel) and you’ll find all the contact data for them; phone numbers, email addresses, postal address, website URLs, current location and the like. Some of that data can be password protected so that only people you trust can view it.
When it launched, .tel’s operator Telnic marketed it as a revolutionary way of keeping people in contact. Rather than having to reprint business cards when you change phone number or relocate, just update your .tel and get everyone to look at that.
Beyond that, there are mobile apps that have the potential to remove the need to ever remember a phone number again. Using .tel you could just select a name from your address book, select a contact method and you could be phoning or email without ever needing to know the actually number or email address you’re connecting to.
It’s a clever idea and one that might take off eventually. One person I follow on Twitter was so taken by the concept that he had business cards printed up that featured his .tel URL as the sole method of contact.
Where’s the takeup?
Despite the hype, where’s the takeup? Has anyone offered you their .tel domain in lieu of a telephone number or email address? If it’s such a great idea why hasn’t it become derigeur for early adopters to use .tel? I bought one at launch but I’ve never actually used it.
By May this year 200,000 .tel domains had been sold according to Telnic, but how many of those are in use? I’d wager that many, like mine, were bought speculatively and have sat idle ever since. We’re told many businesses are using them but I’ve never actually seen a company advertise its .tel
For some individuals, the idea of having your phone number on display online is far from appealing. Sure, you can password protect it, but suddenly you have an admin job on your hands as you have to decide who gets access to your complete details. It’s still much easier to just give someone a card.
Maybe Telnic just needs to explain what .tel offers a bit better. Despite the hype, having a .tel domain hasn’t become a sexy ‘must-have’ for anyone, even the early adopters you would think would lap this stuff up. When we covered the .tel launch announcement last year, Telnic’s Justin Hayward wrote several lengthy comments explaining .tel’s unique selling point and the post’s author Boris still said he didn’t quite get the point.
Maybe .tel will linger in oscurity until a big-name thought leader like Robert Scoble takes up its cause.
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your continued focus on .tel domains. We’re finding that real businesses and individuals are using .tel domains , rather than necessarily the people who talk about and make things cool. That’s perhaps why you don’t see the usage; .tel isn’t Web 2.0, so therefore it’s not ‘sexy’ to talk about it in Web 2.0 circles.
That’s why you’re seeing 2andfro.tel, schuh.tel, cheapflights.tel, henleys.tel and cakeinabox.tel using .tel domains, rather than necessarily a whole load of the digerati.
It took Twitter 2-3 years to become mainstream. You’re suggesting we should exceed that popularity timescale with something that is charged for by Registrars and resellers?
I’d point you instead to Guy Clapperton’s ‘This is Social Media’ book, in which he cautiously says that .tel is new but useful. We’re happy to be judged over time, but please, give us at least the timescale that you do for the shiny Web 2.0 services out there!
Thanks,
Justin Hayward
Telnic Limited
justin.tel
thenextweb, you have just been .told off by .tel :)
Telnic simply has to offer ENUM and VoIP packages with number portability and the Service might take off.
Today there is still no global telecommunication company offering enduser voip – only tiny little companies (but who wants to port his personal phonenumber to a tiny startup)?!
Niall, it was more of a request for a level playing field rather than a .telling off!
Thanks for the qualification Martin. Indeed, there’s a lot more to .tel than just that – including the fact that a .tel name can be dialled directly in certain softphones like Kiax, voipgate, digitrad, etc – which is taking time to come out. With domain names up until now being focused on web hosting, it will take time for the education to get through; but interestingly, not so much time for those individuals and businesses who haven’t had a website previously and who seem to be seeing the benefit.
What Boris’s statistic doesn’t explain is that we don’t sell direct and therefore aren’t driving traffic to our site – it’s not sold at telnic.org, nor is it managed from there either. That means that much of the traffic that was driven to us in the first instance during launch is now going to our Registrars and resellers who use much if not all of our content as well, which is exactly where we’d like it to go. Additionally, resellers like BT are advertising on television directly. We’re out there in the blogosphere engaging rather than driving people back to our website.
We’re seeing real businesses adopting .tel first, and SEO and Web 2.0 guys following on. Perhaps this is just too simple an idea for them to get excited about, when in the real world it’s being seen as a utility. It would be interesting to see further comments here about that perception!
Regards,
Justin
“I’ve seen more bad ideas than most people. .TEL is the worst.” – Michael Arrington (who also described it as “a featureless social network that costs $10/year”!)
“to tell you the truth I don’t get .tel either and they even gave me an account.” – Robert Scoble
“The Internet? We are not interested in it” – Bill Gates, 1993.
The technorati club are too busy curating lists of themselves on Twitter, but step outside of their little incestuous bedroom and see what’s happening in the real world, like the One Vancouver initiative.
Spammers will have a field day with .tel domains. You can even dial the phone number, AWESOME!
That means that I can totally route a call through some Indian call center and actually have an Indian spam you an offer for a new phone plan. SWEET!
Forget e-mail it’s all about direct spamming…eh…direct marketing.
Or maybe, to cut costs, I would just play a short 10 second spam voice message.
Haha, I could even use the MS Sam bot-voice-thingy to create the spam messages. HILARIOUS!
I am totally into this service. Everyone needs to get on board with it. :D
I’m posting anonymously as I work for a large UK domain registrar and can indeed confirm that .tel domains are a huge white elephant.
Despite massive promotions and discounts nobody wants them. We can’t even give them away!
People simply don’t know what to do with them and don’t see the point and I have to agree.
Justin will obviously post to defend his angle but if Telnic ever get their money back I should be amazed.
Re: Scoble
Seems he does have some knowledge and support.
http://www.telw.in/ghdnb8
Cheers,
Scott
I won’t respond directly to those anonymous posters, especially that from the UK Registrar – I can’t argue that they’re experiencing low sales. I just find it bizarre that on the day that The Next Web publishes an article stating “We need a standard, with any luck something virtually every mobile phone manufacturer can agree to run with that will put an end to the entire card handover process”, that people are still hung up on .tel being a domain name, sold in the way that traditional domains are, without seeing the vision that people like David Mayer at ZDNet can get to independently – http://tinyurl.com/mjtvaw
I’m sure (and welcome) the debate continuing!
Thanks for that counterpoint Matt. Interesting to hear two conflicting viewpoints.
Anon, I think you need to come out of the closet if you are willing to make such a huge unfounded claim! Its not right of me to be drawn into the .Tel Debate; and there is plenty of debate, some good, some bad, credible and poor, but I can speak to the sale figures; they’re as good as public, so in fact all accredited registrars should be able to speak to them, and accuratley, so announce yourself please.
Telnic have succeeded in being the biggest gTLD launch in 2008 and 2009. Moreover, they’ve also way outsold or matched any of the major ccTLD launches (a couple excepted where they basically gave it away) in both 2008 and 2009 aswell. That must say something whatever your opinion and is certainly no white elephant as a registrar, its your best growth opportunity right?
There is most certainly un-questionable demand or why would they of achieved this. As registrars we can only influence the final mile (And I’m not sure we even do that!). The registry needs to be in demand and the statistics for this domain clearly shows it is.
Like I say, I really don’t want to get drawn into the pros and cons so please don’t do that to me guys! I just thought it was important to lay the facts down for the benefit of your debate here.
Matt @ Domainmonster.com
Personally I find no use for .tel either as an individual or as a business owner. Nice try but I’m not registering anything except .com or .net
Hi Julie,
This is an often heard response and one that shows that we continue to need to educate people (not hype the service), as a .tel simply doesn’t focus on the same web-hosting services that everyone’s been used to getting from domain names. Just because .tel has a dot in it doesn’t mean it’s automatically ‘another’ traditional domain. It’s not meant to compete with .com or .net. For example, does any other domain integrate with a .com or .net to provide a contact us page fuelled with information from the DNS which anyone with an iPhone or BlackBerry can change without having to go to a computer or code anything? Can you ‘dial’ any other domain from a soft phone from Kiax, voipGATE, digitrad and more, simply by typing the domain name into the number bar?
.tel is a different beast and we know that adoption will take time. But comparing .tel to .com or .net is like saying “I don’t want a mobile phone because I have a television which gives me all of the programmes I want to watch”!
Thanks
Justin
Where did all the comments go?! Are you taking bungs from Telnic?!
http://yandex.tel/ …
In full disclosure i’ve bought my share of .tel and therefore it can be said I’ve a bias.
On the other hand, I have put .tel into use and have seen results.
Unique: YES
SEO: YES
Accessible from any device connected to the internet: YES
Without building costly and operationally demanding Web sites: YES
Flexible and standardized for future Unified Communication platforms: YES
I’m thinking more time is needed, however a “Super Bowl” moment, one like monster.com had, would help push .tel
Someone hit on it earlier, we need to see more usage of the domain, and in mainstream media and entertainment.
How about product placement? think “Sleepless in Seattle” and “you’ve got mail”
In order to be “popular” we will need “pop culture”, eventually.
Steve
hmmm – ignore that!
http://yandex.tel/
Job Wanted
i like the concept of .tel and feel its good to have a no/low-maintenance domain that is used as a contact/info reference that is powered by the distributed DNS technology that makes the Internet usable.
but in order to find greater adoption, i think it may rest in the ability to dial a .tel. i’m not to up on the soft phone tech but i’m thinking that with the growth of Android OS it would be wise to focus there with some apps and maybe eventually some native support. I just bought the Motorola Droid and autmatically synced facebook contacts as phone contacts. i can envision being able to pull down a .tel list (opml?) of contacts in the same manner.
I think we’re quite lucky here in Vancouver in that we do have a groundswell of .TEL users that are using their .TEL names in everyday contexts. Vancouver is a city that does a lot of networking and people are using the Blackberry and iPhone apps to store and use .TEL names.
Take up has been very diverse. There have been a lot of realtors, consultants and sales people but also a lot of small businesses and sole proprietorships.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that there is no faster or more convenient way to exchange contact information than keying a name into one of the apps. Once you’ve got a dozen names or so, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would use anything other than a .TEL as a way to connect. The biggest problem is finding enough people with .TEL names, but each person that really uses their .TEL becomes an advocate and convinces a few more people of the value and so slowly but surely the numbers grow.
Every once in a while a local maven will discover .TEL which swells the numbers by several hundred people. George Moen of Blenz Coffee has been a big supporter of .TEL and has gone so far as to promote .TEL in many outlets. Patrick Marshall of Small Business BC is another influential user and local advocate. .TEL has also proven very popular with boards of local companies and non-profits including the local Board of Trade. .TEL seems well suited to people that know each other in passing or meet infrequently, especially in cases where you may know someone’s name but not necessarily their phone number.
Our experience is that .TEL is very much about the real world. It’s used by people who exchange business cards and are likely to speak on the phone more than by people whose business or interactions are more virtual in nature.
As a local registrar we’ve tried to walk the line between promoting a product we strongly believe in and pushing people to get their .TEL names through us. By supporting local .TEL initiatives rather than being at the centre of them, we’ve been able to help raise awareness and provide education. While this means a lot of people buy their .TEL names elsewhere, it does seem to be working.
While I haven’t personally been asked what my .TEL name is, one of my business partners has. I have however been invited to a .TEL Meet up arranged by someone I didn’t know and I’ve received e-mail that contains people’s .TEL name in their signatures. These occurrences, not initiated by us or those that we immediately influence, suggest to me that .TEL is indeed gaining some traction locally.
If pushed I would estimate that there are somewhere around 1000-1500 people and companies using their .TEL names on a fairly regular basis around the city and few more getting on board every day. In the scheme of things, this isn’t a large number but it’s the beginning of a base that makes it possible to bump into other .TEL name holders and connect with them. Which is pretty much what its all about.
Yandex.tel
http://www.novostivl.tel/
I purchased a number of .tel’s on a speculative basis, when they were first released.
I sold my first .tel domain (storage.tel) for $3950 a few months ago. I think this is the most expensive sale to date of a .tel (to the best of my knowledge).
I must say that I was not expecting to see returns for a few years which is why I sold it so cheap!! (to recover the costs of my other .tels).
I believe that it is only a matter of time before this goes stellar.
I work for a global telecomms company and in my opinion .tel has enormous potential in terms of mobile communications. Mobile technology is evolving to circumvent the need for specific .mobi domains. .tel on the other hand offers a unique proposition. Walk into any phone shop and you’ll see all mobiles going touch screen. The technology is lining up nicely behind .tel from a mobile point of view!
I think .tel concept is very simple to understand (is very stright to the point). It is enough to watch the “train of love” movie, to immediately get the whole idea and benefits. I am from south america, were seems to be difficult to promote this new technology. I am doing my best effort, trying to show .tel potential.. specially to those who do not have an InterNet site. My progress is going better and better. Could convinced people to use: lebouquet.tel (hostel in Bariloche, Argentina); implantologo.tel (Dental surgery and implants); 28doce.tel (restaurant); lamarianita.tel (home design); stbrendans.tel (primary & secundary school); telemaco.tel (educational project -in development-). Dottel domains are step by step in people mouths. Take the time.
Thanks
To be perfectly honest I was skeptical of .tel when I first heard of it. I always (rather foolishly) thought that website have to be incredible content-rich and based on beautiful designs etc etc, but this can still co-exist alongside .tel. Apprehension of dot tel’s and their place within the internet seems to be ‘do they take the place of .com or .net? No, obviously not. But I’d like to raise the point of speed – mobile content on a .tel can be accessed incredibly quickly.
An example would be http://www.soccer.tel, listed on this site you have ESPN’s mobile site amongst others, and the ease of access to content on this .tel is quite outstanding. I can load the browser on my phone, type in soccer.tel, scroll to the ‘Mobile’ section, and view the Headlines page of ESPN Mobile Soccer page all within 15 seconds. Quite a bit easier than typing in ”m.espn.go.com/soccer/index” I think you would all agree.
This style of directory has applicable use, and functionality that you really can’t fault. Simplicity is the name of the game and .tel has it.
Well, I think this post alone will double .TEL’s traffic this month:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/telnic.org/
;-)
Hi Justin, thanks for the comment. I suppose my post has come from a surprise that it hasn’t been picked up by more people already. These things certainly take time to gain traction. I just worry that many people see it as nothing more than an online business card (something that their website already is) and fail to see its full potential.
As the link in Boris’s comment below shows, interest in the service appears to have waned and while it may be a ‘non-sexy’ service, having someone like Scoble, Calacanis et al talk up its benefits would get a whole load of new subscribers on board.
It’s so much easier to be negative about emerging ideas, particularly because Telnic’s job is not to build all the add-ons and instead to allow the software development community to build into the APIs.
Ultimately, .tel is a cloud storage mechanism for structured data. Entire companies could publish their contact directories externally. APIs could be integrated that follow a person as they travel the world. Businesses who are moving, growing or shrinking can save thousands simply by using the .tel rather than putting addresses & contact info in. Since mobile devices can instantly retrieve the record into the browser, it’s easy for users to find the user’s most updated info.
Most importantly, .tel can be the mobile version of a company’s website–since most small to midsize companies are not going to build their mobile website.
.tel is what the business, software and yellowpages communities will make of it. Sky’s the limit.
Good point. It’s perhaps a mark of its lack of success so far that no-one has spammed me via phone yet :)
Interesting insight. Thanks for that, Anon :)
Thanks Scott, good find.