.TEL Registration Opens
2009 March 24
Just to a short note to let everyone know that .tel registration is now opened, with registrars charging as low as $14.95 a year.
The system started accepting domains about 1 hour ago.
To read more about the .tel extension click here
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It’s $8.95 at Name.com for the first year!
Why would any want a domain that can never be more than a web page that displays all your contact information?
This is even more silly than .aero or .museum or .pro. At least you had control over what you could do with those extensions?
Free advice to noobies, don’t waste your money.
I can see some use…if someone remembers your name but not your phone number they could .tel it and there it is…
Its conceivable they could add features later that may make it worth having just in case.
Guys
I don’t think this is an extension to go out and register all types of domains for resale, however I see nothing wrong with going out and getting a domain for your own personal info.
Cheap enough
So I registered berkens.tel.
I sure won’t buy one, I agree with it being a waste.
Not a big .tel fan, but spent 5 minutes on this out of curiosity…
.Tel domain hacks
Problem I see is unlike a real business card once a name has been taken its taken. If your name is sally once sally.tel is taken the thousands of other sallys are out of luck. And the people really thinking they’ll be able to sell subdomains are deceiving themselves at best.
I just registered a few. We’ll see what happens. It’s hard to determine human behavior in advance but perhaps, just like the evolution of searches from print to online, instead of going to the yellow pages and then looking up courier companies you might got directly to courier.tel to find their contact info. Thoughts?
I think it is a great extension. And, no…..I am not a bandwagon alternative extension fan.
I think that b/c the domain can’t be modified is why it will be successful. The navigation is preset and folks eyes will gravitate towards where they Already Know where to look
Also…..ZERO programming skills.
It’s simplicity is also it’s strength.
If no one develops their page then it’s dead. So far sounds like everyone is buying for spec or defense. Not the sign of a great future for .tel.
This too shall pass.
Postive
I agree. You never know what’s going to get hot in the tech world.
As I said I wouldn’t throw big money at this trying to register a lot of generic domains (although any popular first name is probably worth having) but certainly its worth $100 to tie up anything that applies to you or your business
Rob
I think it only takes a few minutes to do your page as the site comes with the domain.
I’m curious to see people do this.
Will you be posting berkens.tel here?
I’m not calling you out or anything but just curious if
A. you are going to develop your .tel?
B. you want to proactively share all your contact information with strangers?
I just don’t understand why anyone would want to use a .tel when an About Us page is all you need and would want to share with strangers.
Again, there is really nothing to develop. You are either christopher.tel or you aren’t and there will be billions that aren’t and only one that can be. Only one johnsmith.tel. What about the thousands of other johnsmiths?
They are not going to want johnsmith.tel either
Again, all spec and no development means a dead extension.
Sure, you’ll probably read about a couple scores here and there, just the nature of the rolling out of a new extension but then 99% are held for spec with 1% developed so who cares?
Okay, rant over
I grabbed only my hometown of 70,000 just to kick the tires and see how it all works…
I’m having mixed feeling on the whole thing, I mean it’s not really convenient to have your info exposed for scrappers. Then again, how many end users even realize this extension exists?
Here are a few domains I found available:
upholsterer.tel
carpintero.tel – Carpenter in spanish.
entrenador.tel – Trainer in spanish.
joyero.tel – Jeweler in spanish.
pintor.tel – Painter in spanish.
dade.tel – Dade County – Miami
Dan
I’m still thinking that the best resale would be a first name.
You would think that someone named mike or michael would pay 4 figures to have mike.tel.
Beyond those type of domains, I would just secure your last name, if available or your business name
Anyone else get a .TEL with Moniker… when should it become active? whois is created…
Since mine’s a GEO, I’ll be adding/courting local businesses. It would be nice to demonstrate it on a iPhone to them live — if I had one =(
Jason
I got mine through Namevault.com and set up a basic, and I mean basic, page in 30 seconds.
berkens.tel
“You would think that someone named mike or michael would pay 4 figures to have mike.tel.”
Why?
Why would someone pay four figures for an About Us page? Sorry but I still just don’t get it.
@MHB Maybe Moniker’s just not on the ball? My .TEL is still disabled in my control panel…
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FWIW, DomainMonster.com is partnering with MySpace to advertise and sell .tel domains through DM’s reseller program.
It’s in a news item on the bottom of DM’s site.
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@rob…your assuming they have a website already.
many people dont have or know how to set up a site.
mike.com would be worth 5 figures and is still mostly a vanity name…mike.tel could be a 4 figure name to the right person.
Tim
I think mike.com or michael.com would be a six figure domain.
.tel to early to know
Guys
Again on these .tel there is no website to set up.
You have to use the registry’s template which takes a few minutes to get through but you can’t put up your own site on a .tel
.com sure
.tel not so much
@MHB not yet, but by pointing the .tel to your own nameservers you can do the same thing and more. .TEL will be releasing their server-side code that does this soon they say ( it’s Java servlet-based :p )
Hard to tell what the future will bring, or how it’s going to shape up, but seems to me, that with everything going digital/blackberryish/iPhone’ish the .tel “could” catch on…
If I’m using my bb or iPhone, and wanted to brush up on someone I’m say meeting with, (info, names, etc) why should I use my phone to navigate to a page, in order to navigate again to another page for the “about us” page, which may or may not have the info I’m seeking, not to mention any crap and graphics that the person/company has on it.
With the .tel, and with it being a basic page, I would tend to think it’s geared exactly towards viewing from a mobile device.
It’s almost like a virtual address book, or business contact management, without the need for memory cards, or taking up space from my MP3′s LOL.
It’s got it’s good points, and bad points, and it’s funny to hear the views of the procrastinators condemning it before it gets a chance.
It’s almost like that guy(who will remain unamed) that said: “640K ought to be enough for anybody”