I saw that bredpit.tel was up for sale for $250.  I thought “Oh no – that poor person has done a misspelling on Brad Pitt and is now trying to sell it off for some ridiculous amount.”

Well I was wrong.  Apparently Brad Pitt’s name translates to Bred Pit in Macedonian.  There is a Facebook Group for Bred Pit with almost 500 members.A Google search for bred pit, brings up large numbers of Brad Pitt links without asking “Did you mean Brad Pitt”.

Who knew that you had to get not only your real name but your translated name?  Gosh, it’s exhausting. Hmmm – it looks like “Van Disel” will be having the same problem.

Search for yourname.tel, and don’t forget to pick up the Macedonian translation

Here’s three big developments from the past couple days:

.TEL Search Engine – Jepaa Delivers Contact Information Fast

A .TEL search engine launched this week. It’s called Jepaa and it’s TEL specific, searching only .TEL sites. When somebody searches for contact information on Google they typically have to (A) sort through pages of search results that don’t relate to what they are looking for; or (B) dig through multiple pages to find contact information. Jepaa simplifies things by delivering you contact information in the form of .TEL sites. Jepaa’s other cool features include mobile compatibility, support of multiple languages and the ability to provide results that take both keywords and locations into consideration. Another nice-to-have:  it’s compatible with Adsense.

Read more about Jepaa.  Try Jepaa out for yourself .

.TEL Blackberry App available for Download

Telnic announced yesterday that the final release of its free BlackBerry(TM) plug-in is available for download. The application enables BlackBerry users to do the following things:

• Directly lookup a .TEL domain inside the address book, including private information from friends
• Search for a .TEL domain inside the address book
• Add any .TEL domain as a new contact or associate it with an existing contact
• Send ‘friending’ requests and accept or decline them depending on your TelFriends status
• Quickly change your .TEL profile to make sure your contacts reach you the way you want

Navigating by BlackBerry, the app is available at http://telnic.org/community-applications.html or http://bb.apps.telnic.tel

Read the Telnic press release

My.tel – .TEL  iPhone App Now Available

And to complete the trifecta, just today Telnic announced the availability of My.tel . The free, open source iPhone application allows .TEL owners with iPhones to manage .TEL domains without having to log on to a computer.  The app makes it easy to do the following :

• Publish a location through an embedded map linked with the iPhone’s GPS
• Update their status using profiles depending on how they want to be contacted at that time
• Add new, remove, hide or show items of contact information
• Manage, add or remove folders and profiles which group contact information together
• Manage privacy settings for friends and colleagues
• Add or remove keywords that help people searching for .TEL  owners contact information.

My.tel can be downloaded for free from the App Store or via the iPhone usingthe App Store application.

Read the Telnic press release

Email also launched for .TEL names this week, at least at one registrar. Read our previous post for more information.

And it you’re in the market for a .TEL name, there are still lot’s  of great ones available. Click here to search for yours.

Three .TEL domains have been profiled so far:

• esb.tel  – ESB, business school in Germany  
• representative.tel  – US House of Representatives Directory  
• removals.tel  –  Nice example of a small business .tel 

Telnic is selecting examples submitted by the public. In terms of criteria, Telnic has stated it is primarily interested in “.TEL names that are helpful, well-populated and discover innovative ways to keep in touch.”

If you want to nominate your .TEL to be featured on Telnic’s website, send them an email at community@telnic.org.

I’m thinking of nominating bowser.tel. This dog has done a better job setting up his .TEL than I have  – it includes links to a Flickr album, various dog websites and even his email address (I’m thinking of emailing Bowser just for kicks).

Despite .TEL names being splashed all over the aftermarket already, many great .TEL names are still available. Search for your .TEL name today and join the growing global directory.

Instead of storing static contact data in your address book, Superbook users only need to store  .TEL names .

The following video shows how Superbook works. What’s especially cool is that everything you see happening in it is dynamic and occurring in in real time. After finding the .TEL you want in Superbook, the call is made in seconds. Nothing in Superbook is cached apart from some maps. The .tel navigation taking place is done entirely through DNS queries.

When will it be available? Superbook is currently being reviewed by the folks at Apple. The review process could take a week, or it could take several weeks. We’ll keep our ears open for word of its release and let you know when it’s available.

Haven’t registered your .TEL name yet? Search to see if it’s available and have it live before Superbook launches to the public.