Besides the usual aftermarket sites, over the past few weeks I have seen a number of blogs, and even some Google Adword campaigns (vet.tel comes to mind), advertising premium .TEL names for sale.

Although .TEL aftermarket activity is on the increase, it’s important to note that a lot of great names are still available in the primary market. Before you fork over more than $30 for an aftermarket .TEL, make sure you search out variants and related word combinations at a .TEL registrar, you might be surprised at what is still available.

Happy .TEL hunting!

Anyways, read Luke’s article re-posted below, it opens the door to the underlying potential of .TEL that seems to be missing from much of the current dialogue about the new extension.

Are .TEL Addresses the New Vanity Phone Numbers?

Follow me for a second; in just a few lines, I aim to convince you that .tel addresses are not another TLD. There’s really something else going on here.

By far the most convincing attribute of .tel addresses isn’t what most blogs are talking about — quickly updating data, no hosting, etc. — but that, if apps are developed for mobile phones, instead of having phone numbers in your phone, you could store .tel domains that your friends can update as their info changes (putting your friends in control of *their* contact information stored in *your* phone). This means no more “dead numbers” or emails flying back and forth saying “I changed my number.” There must be 1,000s of Facebook status updates and 100,000s of emails daily that inform people of changes in phone numbers. All of these people would immediately understand what .tel offers: It takes a headache away for them — and that alone is worth the $10-$20/year to register a .tel.

What does this mean in the short term? It means that .tel addresses could become a new way to contact people (it’s easier to remember than a phone number AND, as the data stored on the .tel changes, those changes will automatically propagate to all the mobile devices the .tel contact is saved on). There are privacy issues that will need to be ironed out — not everyone wants just anyone to be able to contact them (as an aside, corporations do!) – but everyone evaluating .tel should understand this: It’s not what *you* see on the .tel “page”; it’s what your mobile device sees – up-to-date contact information stored not on your phone, but on a central server.

What does this mean in the long term? It means that .tel domains could become the new vanity phone numbers. Remember the trade in 1-800 numbers of the 1990s? Many early domainers do – that’s what got them to recognize the scarcity of domains early on.

Here’s a long shot: It’s possible that generic .tel domains could become more valuable than generic 1-800 numbers. If the concept of .tel domains as proxies for phone numbers takes off, you’ll get more unsolicited, pre-qualified leads from people typing RealEstate.tel (not one of mine) into a browser or mobile device than you would from 1-800-RealEstate. My rationale: When is the last time you dialed a generic 1-800 number when looking for something? For me, never. When is the last time you typed in a generic domain when you were looking for something? For me, a few times a day. .tel could have the characteristics of vanity 1-800 numbers AND some of the type-in-traffic benefits of TLDs.

If you agree with any of this at all, send it to Digg or Reddit, link to it, Twitter it, etc. and let’s let the public debate it.

Additional thought:
I emailed a version of this post to a friend the other day. Let’s say his name is John Doe. Right before I clicked “send,” I thought, “What if on my phone I typed JohnDoe2.tel (assuming JohnDoe.tel is taken) to call my friend and to email him I did the same – just typed JohnDoe2.tel into the email “To” field?” Similar to the discussion above, either my email provider or an app I’m using would identify my friend’s email address from JohnDoe2.tel and send the email to that. I wouldn’t have to remember his email address or look it up.

More Information:

Continuing with exploration of how .TEL can and might be used as things unfold, also check out our previously published article, .TEL – The Ultimate in Online Identity Protection.

Check out Luke’s blog Domain Synergies for further reading on domain names and related topics.

.Tel is a new way to share all your contact information by giving them your own easy to remember name – like janedoe.tel. It allows you to store, publish and update your information online and is accessible from any Internet enabled device. There is no need for a website with .TEL, and it can act as a communications hub for your business or personal contacts.

It’s nice to see domain investors coming around on the .TEL domain. The perception that a domain name needs always to be linked to website creation is challenged by dot-tel – and likely is one reason why it’s taken longer for the industry to embrace the concept behind the new domain. It’s great to see people catching on to what a great communication tool .TEL will be for businesses and individuals alike.

Here are some of Forsaken’s “Reason’s to Register” your .TEL :

From Part One

Create and Control your Communications Hub
The .tel enables you to create a fully interactive and live communications hub to take control over how and where customers communicate with you …

Join the Only, Real-Time, Global Directory
Yourbusiness.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 …

Effectively Route Customers to appropriate Departments and Locations
Yourbusiness.tel allows you to easily route customers to the department or location of their choice …

Connect with your Customers from any Device
Yourbusiness.tel makes your business or brand instantly accessible from any device connected to the internet …

Gain an Effective Mobile Presence
Yourbusiness.tel is optimized for mobile devices since it uses small and fast DNS lookups rather than pulling traditional website and html content …

[More]

Part Two discusses the advantages of .TEL’s system of storing data directly in the DNS, including:

No website necessary: The contact information stored in the DNS is readily available and efficiently delivered to any device without the need for a website or a webmaster.

Speed: The Domain Name System is optimized for speed. Because it is DNS-based, a .tel lookup takes just a fraction of a second, and is much quicker than loading a typical web page.

Real-Time: Whenever you update your data in the DNS, the change “goes live” immediately.

Improved control: Traditionally, search engines are forced to “read” entire web pages and guess the keywords. The .tel uses the data you supply to the DNS to tell search engines exactly where the keywords are, thereby improving your control over your search results.

[More]

Visit Domain Marvelous and read Forsaken’s informative posts on .TEL. And when you are ready, Register/Pre-book your .TEL domains with an official .TEL registrar .