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New .tel TLD Now In Use

Posted by timothy on from the pay-at-the-tel-booth dept.

rockwood reports that the .tel top level domain has been deployed, "in a first attempt at pushing the recently approved .tel... The top-level domain .tel was approved by ICANN as a sponsored TLD launching on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 to trademark owners of national effect and on February 3, 2009 to anyone who wishes to apply. Its main purpose is as a single management and publishing point for 'internet communication' services, providing a global contacts directory service by housing all types of contact information directly in the DNS."

15 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by TypoNAM · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is anybody else shrugging their shoulders and asking the same question of: What the hell is the point in wasting DNS space for such a half-assed crap idea?

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    This space is not for rent.
    1. Re:Huh? by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Take a look at what's already out there. Mostly over 500 Telnic employees grabbing henry.tel and david.tel. Yawn.

      Its main purpose is as a single management and publishing point for 'internet communication' services ...

      And right from the get-go it's main purpose is overshadowed by some every Telnic employee's desire to be THE Henry on the .tel TLD. That must be awfully helpful to us in our need for 'internet communication' services.

      More garbage for the tubes, I guess.

      What the hell is the point in wasting DNS space

      Are we really concerned about "DNS space?" I guess I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to why we need to be concerned about 'space' on DNS names ... perhaps you mean IP address space? And if so, people are basically flushing those down the toilet by giving every device one (including their toilet).

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      My work here is dung.
    2. Re:Huh? by onefriedrice · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Perhaps by DNS space he means the fact that organizations who want to register their website under all the TLD's in order to protect their name will have yet another TLD. As the number of domains that point to the same IP address increases, so does the number of pointless DNS requests.

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      This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
  2. .mobi? by larry+bagina · · Score: 3, Insightful

    sounds like .mobi. And probably as irrelevant.

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    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    1. Re:.mobi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      he got a whole TLD to himself? awesome...

  3. wish i could tag by theilliterate · · Score: 4, Funny

    "dontaskdottel"

  4. Uh, what? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How is that meant to work? I already use existing domain names for 'Internet communication' services, like email and IM. I can already use DNS to map telephone numbers to these with RFC 2916 or map arbitrary domains to them with RFC 2915. So, what exactly, is the point of .tel?

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    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    1. Re:Uh, what? by Kent+Recal · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Aren't we beyond the point of "must own every tld in existence" by now?

      I lived through that in my old company. They literally wanted all TLDs, not only for the primary name but also for most spelling mistakes. And for country-specific spelling mistakes (french people might make different mistakes than english people).

      Consequently they had 1-2 fulltime employees doing nothing but domain registration and babysitting. Yes, domains do need babysitting when you're literally owning thousands of them from all countries of the world. Ever deciphered a russian expiry notice? Or tried to establish an office in some arabic country only so that you are allowed to buy a domain from them?

      Long story short: Most sane businesses should have realized by now that they really only need the standard set (.com/.net/.org), plus the country TLDs for the countries where they're actually doing business. Everything else is wasted money. If someone squats your name on some obscure foreign TLD then so what? Ignore them or sue them into oblivion (trademark!) if they try to pull off scams in your name.

  5. Enum by Imagix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Uh, didn't this used to be called Enum? (e164.arpa.)?

  6. YAY! Just what we needed! by Farmer+Pete · · Score: 4, Funny

    As if we don't have enough TLD's already...

    I think the part that gets me the most angry is, have you ever tried to tell someone your email address over the phone when it doesn't end in com/org/edu? My company was apparently late to market with their webpage, so we have a 20 character dot com address and an incredibly short .biz address. I used to choose the .biz because I thought it would be simple for people to understand. I'm very careful to enunciate my letters, but these people are clueless. No matter how much I tell them B as in Bravo, I as in Indiana, Z as in Zebra, they end up with DIC...Seriously, if there even was a .dic TLD, would you want to be there???

  7. loldomains by w0mprat · · Score: 4, Funny

    ICANNhas.cheezburger?

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  8. .wtf tld lol by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think we should register the .WTF TLD and use it as a "parody TLD for anyone who wants to mock a trademark"

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    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  9. Re:I want royalties by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 5, Funny

    It doesn't have to be a proper spelling. hoe.tel!

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    We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
  10. Re:I want royalties by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 4, Funny

    hoe.tel!

    AKA craigslist.org/services/erotic

  11. How is this different from .name? by Ilyakub · · Score: 3, Interesting

    .name has been active since 2001, for the very same purpose. It's not very popular.