The .TEL Discussion Thread

[brendan52190]

Hi

For this, let's assume that .tel will not be a total flop.

What type of keywords will be most valuable for this extension? Will it be geographical keywords, like newyork.tel, losangeles.tel, etc, or what else?

 

[Acroplex]

Social experiment: Get yourself a latte and a 3 letter .tel and go after a leggy blonde in London's commuter railway!

 

[bmugford]

I really only see a couple long term uses. Neither have any commercial value.

1.) business to have their contact info consolidated in one place.
2.) Individuals to have their contact info either with first or last name. It is also is a good way for families to list everyone's contact info in one place under their Name.tel

Other than that I don't see massive value to end users.

Brad

I can appreciate tongue-in-cheek commentary, but are you just desperately trying to justify this zombie TLD?

 

[Acroplex]

Parking page = end users... maybe to some, but not in my book.

As long as I renew a domain, I am an end user.

 

[FathomJH]

adam.tel----my name
britney.tel---spears
hawaii.tel
miami.tel
orlando.tel
stlouis.tel
washingtondc.tel
christmas.tel
halloween.tel
pornstars.tel
pornstar.tel---one can be a vanity name if I want to sell
guitar.tel
nuclear.tel
and some more vanities
alien.tel
bigfoot.tel
death.tel
Yeah, that's a lot to spend. Most of the big ones were landrush. Slowly working on them but got other bigger things to complete first.

Welcome to NamePros. Very nice list of .tel's

 

[petespace]

guys, i snagged

dogwash.tel (the one to use)
petwash.tel (just to cover the market)
boatshop.tel


i like dogwash.tel , dogwashing is a big market, type in could be big, a company could buy this or i could turn it into a directory, and give a limit of one company per area to be listed, creating exclusive area listing

any thoughts guys, im just a dummy, i know nothing!

 

[stefanb]

there seems little interest on you tube looking at video views

what do you think of a2z.tel what would you list ?

Great question. I got z2a.tel, a2zny.tel and atozny.tel probably a day before you asked the question....

It's a lot easier to envision organizing a2zny.tel into a useful directory of generics for New York than to envision what I would put into the z2a.tel.... If you have any ideas, let me know....

 

[bmugford]

1.) Yeah, I agree. I don't think owning your Business.tel is a must by any stretch.

2.) As far as I know you can keep the info private. So that is not really an issue. I am talking mainly about LastName.tel, as I am sure all the popular first names are long gone.

Brad

1) Businesses that *can* buy their URL already have it in com/net/org/info/biz/us - or in a ccTLD /// I only see that used as a *pointer* to complex or lengthy company names.

2) If you put your family info e.g. email contacts and phone numbers on a public web site for the sake of "convenience", you'll soon get spammed or harassed.

Also, the number of first names that can be registered are probably already taken. What would be Telnic's sales pitch to MySpace users?

"I want Bobby.tel" - sorry, taken
"Um, Johnny.tel" - taken
"How about Maria.tel?" - um, not available

 

[Acroplex]

Brad, in the commercial the girl types Ben.tel and gets the guy's phone number. If I wanted to reach my family via a phone number, it's already in my cell. If I had to go to my family's last name .tel, LOG IN (you said private) and such, I'd be in serious trouble.

 

[bmugford]

A2ZNY and ATOZNY are both available in every extension other than .COM, and those .COM were both regged yesterday. I think that says a lot about the value of the keywords.

Brad

Great question. I got z2a.tel, a2zny.tel and atozny.tel probably a day before you asked the question....

It's a lot easier to envision organizing a2zny.tel into a useful directory of generics for New York than to envision what I would put into the z2a.tel.... If you have any ideas, let me know....

 

[Acroplex]

Imagine giving your "Ben.tel" style URL to a drunk chick at a club. Next day she goes to the .com

Epic fail.

 

[bmugford]

I am talking about using it as a directory. I don't have all the phone numbers, email, addresses, etc of my family at my fingertips. I am just saying it can be used for that.

Even that has no commercial appeal though. You are so limited by the format I feel like it makes no sense. I mean it is like we have gone back from websites in which the only limit is creativity to a phonebook.

Brad

Brad, in the commercial the girl types Ben.tel and gets the guy's phone number. If I wanted to reach my family via a phone number, it's already in my cell. If I had to go to my family's last name .tel, LOG IN (you said private) and such, I'd be in serious trouble.

LOL. I could totally see that.

Imagine giving your "Ben.tel" style URL to a drunk chick at a club. Next day she goes to the .com

Epic fail.

 

[zapdaddy]

Just saw the whois for alphabet.tel and guess who it is....
it's BMW, yeah that BMW, the car company!
Sure they use the BMW 3 letters as their branding, but alphabet.tel?
What are they up to with that reg?
Interesting.

What am I missing here?

 

[MicroGuy]

What am I missing here?

Here's your answer: http://www.alphabet.com/

 

[Acroplex]

Good catch, MG. So BMW protects the rights of its affiliate business. That's more proof that generics, when used as a business brand, must be protected in every TLD. That's what Telnic hoped for.

In other news: whois.nic.tel is not to be trusted with regards to availability. Telnic still hoards lots of domains that show up as available using the WHOIS tool. e.g. dot.tel, com.tel etc.

The availability tool that works is at http://telnic.org/index-lookup-frame.html

 

[bmugford]

This is why I have doubts custom extensions will ever actually be released. It would be a nightmare for companies to protect their brand in every extension.

Disney.Movies
Disney.Toys
Disney.Vacations
Disney.Hotels
Disney.Resorts
Disney.Games
Disney.Cruise

Now take that and multiply it by thousands of companies and hundreds or thousands of extensions.

I have real doubts about that for the reason you mentioned.

Brad

Good catch, MG. So BMW protects the rights of its affiliate business. That's more proof that generics, when used as a business brand, must be protected in every TLD. That's what Telnic hoped for.
[/url]

 

[Acroplex]

Telnic hoards domains not provisioned by ICANN, such as internet.tel, dot.tel, com.tel, pizza.tel

ICANN's list of reserved domains can be found at http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/tel/appendix-6-07apr06.htm

 

[chader144]

some names left... from the Available .tel thread:

Mallory.tel
Aliyah.tel
Sheena.tel
Meagan.tel
Jenifer.tel
Christi.tel
Jacklyn.tel
Cortney.tel
Staci.tel

 

[petespace]

ctp.tel

compulsory third party insurance for vehicles in aus.

quick access to current ctp prices

 

[DnEbook]

No, it's franchisor.tel

I would not pay $100 for the .com

The .tel version is worth $0

the guy hand regged

franchisor.tel
franchiseopportunities.tel
ifranchise.tel

we are both wrong ....it was frachising.tel for $200,000

 

[StuartP]

.tel Marketing Thoughts

Late night marketing thoughts for .tel:

By far the most convincing element of a .tel sales pitch I've made to folks so far hasn't been 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). No more "dead numbers" or emails flying back and forth saying "I changed my number." This has been the most convincing piece of information about .tel domains to folks I've spoken with, especially (and this is the important part) to those who aren't tech-savvy (don't know or care what hosting, DNS, etc. are). Those unfamiliar with web technology readily understand that having your friends be able to update their contact info and having that update automatically in your phone is great.

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 those people would immediately understand what .tel offers. It takes a headache away for them -- and that alone is worth the $10-$15/year. I think, along with the "simplicity argument" that is being made in the Ben.tel video, this should be the other element of any pitch to those who don't care about or wouldn't understand the more technical benefits of .tel. It has really seemed to resonate with folks I've spoken with.

I just wanted to provide some anecdotal evidence from my conversations with people.

P.S. Just thought of this: What if on my phone I typed BobThompson.tel to call my hypothetical friend "Bob Thompson" and to email him I did the same - just typed BobThompson.tel into the email "To" field"? Would require a big partnership with email providers.