Most phone companies offer this service, which gives you a tracking phone number that you put into .tel.

Here is a description of remote call forwarding as provided by my Canadian phone company, as well as a description of market expansion line from a major American phone company.

When somebody uses that number, the call is forwarded to your actual line, but call duration and the total number of calls is tracked by the phone company. You then get a report with all the data to demonstrate how your .tel phone line is working.

If your phone company does not provide the service you need, you can also set up a tracking line forwarded to a toll-free number. This should provide you with similar data. While most phone companies will charge for the tracking number service, it’s typically a small fee.

We hope that using these tools will provide you a clearer picture of the volume of calls coming from your .TEL name.

Attention all realtors, while I paint you a picture …

Shirley and Bill are in the market to buy a house.  On their Sunday drive they stumble upon a house that appeals to them.

Sadly, by the time they get home – after picking up groceries, going through the car wash and visiting aunt Mable – they have forgotten the address of the house for sale and the real estate agency it is listed with.

Dear realtors – if you all would break down and get yourname.tel and plop it on your “for sale” signs, people like Shirley and Bill would actually stand a chance at getting in touch with you.

Now there is no guarantee that a handy dandy .tel name will induce Shirley and Bill to purchase the house, but it probably help them contact you for more information. And remember your name.  And refer you to their friends.

Perhaps the best thing about .tel for realtors, and other relationship based professions (hairdressers, massage therapists and car salespeople come to mind) is that you can move, change employers, open up your own business and still be found 5 years later because your .tel remains the same.

That’s the great thing about tel – the game may change but the name remains the same.

More Information for Realtors

Watch a short video designed for realtors about how .TEL works and its benefits.

The  .TEL  4  Realtors blog also does a nice job of showing how to add real estate listings to your .TEL

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.

A few registrars have replied that they are waiting on Telnic, among other things.
In Telnic’s Q&A on this topic, they advise .TEL owners to check with their service provider, stating:

Yes, .tel domains enable using email but don’t come with a ready email solution yet. Please contact with your .tel service provider to check whether an email offering is available and to have the relevant domain settings (i.e. MX records) configured on your behalf. Please note that over the coming months Telnic will also be providing direct support within the TelHosting application for users to connect their own choice of email to .tel domains.

.TEL registrar Webnames.ca   is already offering email for .TEL domains registered with them. If you’re tech savvy enough, there are some instructions available on the Telsters forum about how to use a free version of SoapUI to set up your MX record (see page two of the thread).

I haven’t heard any other registrars announcing  email for .TEL  yet, but drop us a line if you know of any.

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!

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.

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.

In partnerships with several ICANN accredited registrars, MySpace began offering .TEL last week.

MySpace has over 130 million active users, 20 million of which access the community via mobile devices each month.  This is a huge market for .TEL, and a great opportunity to mobilize, en masse, .TEL’s global directory.

On the surface of things, .TEL and MySpace appear to be a good fit. MySpace users can utilize their .TEL to promote their MySpace pages in organic search and securely share their more private contact information with non-MySpace users who wish to contact them.

After clicking on the creative and running through the MySpace .TEL registration process, I have to admit Myspace has done a good job with its UI. The dot TEL search and registration process is smooth, the price is right, so only time will tell if MySpace users embrace .TEL like MySpace and Telnic hope they will.

Read More:
Telnic Limited to Offer .TEL Domains Through MySpace

And here are some examples of the dot TEL creative MySpace is running:

When Telnic opens .TEL registration to the public, prices will drop to an average of $20 US from the Landrush price of $375. The day before a TLD opens for General Registration is always a busy time for domain investors and participating registrars – and judging by talk on blogs and Twitter, TEL is no exception. Registrars are reporting thousands of last minute pre-registrations.

I was curious to see if there were quality names left, so I did some quick dot-TEL searches on random words and phrases. It appears that tonnes of GREAT names are still available on this last day of Landrush. While this shouldn’t be a big surprise give the price tag for Landrush, it’s exciting because it means those willing to invest in .TEL names at $20 a pop will probably snag some good ones.

Here’s a sample of what I found in 10 minutes of searching:

In other .TEL news, Telnic, the .TEL registry operator recently launched a free, open source iPhone application for .TEL names that has been submitted to the Apple App Store and should be available in the near future.

Register .TEL on March 24 with an official .TEL registrar.

The premium fees that were applied during the public Landrush registration period to dissuade domain squatters from buying .TEL domains for resale purposes will drop by 90% on Tuesday, March 24, 2009. General Registration will see registration fees fall from nearly $400 USD to approximately $20 USD at many participating registrars.

The Sunrise registration period was reserved for Trademark owners and allowed them exclusive rights to protect their trademark names. The first-come, first-served Landrush registration period has been designed to allow anyone to apply early for brand oriented names not protected by a trademark, as well as premium names.

With the floodgates opening on .TEL next Tuesday, businesses and organizations might want to act now to ensure they control important .TEL domains related to their initiatives. While all businesses risk losing important variations of their primary domain names by neglecting to register them, it is typically high-traffic, high profile companies or organizations that are targeted.

Even if trademark laws are on your side, the Landrush registration fee is probably a bargain when compared to costs of legally wresting your domain back from a cybersquatter. The cheapest and easiest method to protecting your trademarks and variants online is to register your domains before someone else does.

Businesses and organizations should also consider registering variations of their trademarks and brands including: common misspellings and/or typos, plurals and singulars.

Register .TEL names during Landrush, or Pre-book .TEL names risk free for General Registration with an official .TEL registrar.