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Watch out .Mobi the new kid on the block is .Tel
March 3rd, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
ICANN just announced today that .TEL is live. Congratulations Telnic! On the official website http://www.nic.tel/ they state that they will be announcing plans in the next few weeks to start selling .Tel through your local registrar. With all the hype around .Mobi I predict a slow down in pricing around .Mobi. It seems that .Tel is a more intuitive name than .Mobi so MTLD has a big problem on its hands. Dot Tel sounds like it could be used on any telephone while .mobi is offically only for whaling. Oops, I mean is only for the Sopranos. Oops, I mean is for mobile devices.
Dot Mobi has announced support by some large industry leaders but it has the worst name. In the long run the better name should win. I think the smart money will be on .Tel domains. If you do a grandmother test and ask her to combine a domain name with telephone number I think her first answer will be 1-800-example. Looks like it will take some advertising dollars to get both brands in people’s minds.
We are all conditioned to think 1-800 right now. But numbers don’t pull up websites. In the future as I listen to TV and radio I see can see one brand sticking out. People will remember Tel over Mobi when it comes to TV and Radio spots. Dot Tel is three characters like .Com and Dot Tel is a powerful brand name.
If you had to buy flowers right now, what would you do?
- A) Open the Yellow Pages and look up Flowers.
- B) Go to Google and type in “Flowers MyCity“.
- C) Call 1-800-Flowers.
- D) Type in Flowers.mobi.
- E) Type in Flowers.Tel.
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Posted in Domain Industry, ICANN, New TLDs |
March 3rd, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Actually I would probably just go to ftd.com.
If there site was down then I would probably go to Google.
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:35 pm
its cool ………. its better than .mobi
March 4th, 2007 at 12:42 am
I think you’re wrong about the competition with .mobi. IF you read the ICANN documents about .Tel, you will see that they probably won’t have anything like flowers.tel pointing to a flowers website. Think instead, how will I make a call to FTD from my VoIP phone? Well, I “dial” ftd.tel, and from there, it will contact the DNS, which will identify FTD’s phone number. There is never a need for a website at all. Think of how SMTP email uses DNS MX records to send messages to people… It will be like that, only the record type is NAPTR. The .Tel registry may not even allow A records! So, no, this is not another web-browsing TLD like .mobi. Don’t bother comparing the two, I don’t think it will work. Also, don’t go register tons of .Tel domains thinking you can capitalize on stupid web parking ads. .MOBI has a few restrictions, but nothing like .TEL!!
March 4th, 2007 at 12:49 am
this is my post in my bussiness blog: http://arielpeter.blogia.com/2007/030401-pronto-se-podran-registrar-dominios-.tel.php
I think what the .tel in Latin America is a good oportunity, is a most popular “word” what mobi
March 4th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Sounds to me like someone missed the .mobi train and wants to jump on the .tel boat instead. Unfortunately .tel is not competing with .mobi
Also on the offical website:
http://www.telnic.org/faq.html
[QUOTE]What will the .Tel domain do?
The .Tel domain will provide seamless integration of existing methods of communication with emerging technologies like Voice over IP (VoIP). By leveraging innovative DNS (Domain Name System) technology, the .Tel domain will allow anyone to publish and control, in real time, how they can be reached.
The .Tel domain will enable people to reach a business from any Internet enabled device (computer or mobile) simply by typing, for example, “Hertz.tel”. The user will then be able to connect directly to a Hertz representative or navigate through a list of services that Hertz may offer. Businesses can easily extend their brands into this new space and enhance the way customer inquiries are handled.
In addition, individuals can use the .Tel domain to publish and update their contact information directly in the DNS. These individuals will decide, in real-time, by what means their friends and colleagues will be able to reach them. This could include: VoIP, conventional telephony (fixed-line or wireless), email, SMS, Skype, AIM and many more.[/QUOTE]
Where are the similarities with .mobi? Where are the standards for mobile websites like .mobi offers?
Sort your facts out before posting such rubbish! LOL
March 4th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Your comparing apples and oranges here.
The .mobi ext is not just for phones. It is for phones and ALL mobile devices. The whole reason behind .mobi is to set up standards that all sites ‘must’ follow so that the consumer knows that any time they use .mobi , they WILL find a site that will resolve on their device. It is not only for ‘telephone’ use.
The branding and purpose for .mobi is to ensure a good experience for anyone who wants to visit a site via their mobile device. the .tel name is not intended for the same use, so there is no comparison.
Please do your homework before posting an article such as this. People who read this may not fully understand the purpose of .mobi and might be searching for good information. This type of .mobi slam might impair a business person’s view of what .mobi is about and therefore prevent them from obtaining a .mobi name. This will not help them when it comes to having their own name on a .mobi compliant site, which is where most of the mobile user’s visits will occur. Yes, they can use any extension for mobile sites, but .mobi is the one that everyone will see as synonymous with mobile Suring. You are doing everyone a disservice with this article.
March 4th, 2007 at 10:32 am
A domain is a domain is a domain. If you are allowed to control the DNS servers then it can be used for any purpose DNS would allow for. We saw this with .NAME. Dot Name said they would only allow third level registrations, then after the launch they said it was a mistake and went to second level registrations.
If hotels.tel and flowers.tel don’t resolve to a mobile site selling those things within 3 years I will eat my shorts.
March 4th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Did you even read what I said Domain Tools Team?
Here is is again, all of it:
“The .mobi ext is not just for phones. It is for phones and ALL mobile devices. The whole reason behind .mobi is to set up standards that all sites ‘must’ follow so that the consumer knows that any time they use .mobi , they WILL find a site that will resolve on their device. It is not only for ‘telephone’ use.
The branding and purpose for .mobi is to ensure a good experience for anyone who wants to visit a site via their mobile device. the .tel name is not intended for the same use, so there is no comparison.
Please do your homework before posting an article such as this. People who read this may not fully understand the purpose of .mobi and might be searching for good information. This type of .mobi slam might impair a business person’s view of what .mobi is about and therefore prevent them from obtaining a .mobi name. This will not help them when it comes to having their own name on a .mobi compliant site, which is where most of the mobile user’s visits will occur. Yes, they can use any extension for mobile sites, but .mobi is the one that everyone will see as synonymous with mobile Suring. You are doing everyone a disservice with this article.”
A domain is a domain, unless the branding sets it apart from the rest. If .mobi brands its self as the domain ext for mobile devices, and promises that every single mobile device will resolve a .mobi site, we have a profound difference.
Hotels.tel and flowers.tel might very well resolve on a mobile device, but will people even consider trying a .tel on a blackberry? If they know the .mobi will work, then why bother with .tel or any other ext? That is the idea, at least for now. I am 100% sure other tlds will follow suit, and that the mobile browsers will improve with time. For now, though, .mobi is the ‘only’ tld that was created for the mobile device in order to “ensure” the user actaully gets to a site and not an error. The only tld that “ensures” that there will not be a bandwidth overload on their mobile device.
Its not the same as every other domain ext.
March 5th, 2007 at 4:08 am
.Org is for non profits, .Net is for ISPs, and .Com is for commercial. We have all heard the registries try and convince us how we should use a name space. The fact is people like .COM better. While the PR team for Mobi has stated that they are the mobile TLD, other TLDs technically resolve the same way. I notice google just uses .com/m for mobile rather then .mobi. I think .Tel will be used more for what .Mobi’s PR team has stated then .Mobi. Let’s wait two years and see who is right.
March 5th, 2007 at 7:31 am
The .mobi TLD will be successful if for no other reason than it is controlled by the mobile service and equipment industry and will probably become the default for those devices, as .com has become the default of all regular domain space. There’s no reason to think that you have to have a .mobi address to serve the mobile device user. Anyone can create a mobi.[domain].[tld] or [domain].[tld]/mobi and use the same specs of formatting and xml to properly serve a small screen device. What can be done for DNS with one TLD can be done with another. Each is just trying to carve out a niche to capture a small sub-portion of the .com space by specializing in a specific purpose better than the generalization of .com.
.mobi will likely lead in mobile devices, but their specialization to a specific size format allows room for .tel into VOIP and other non-mobile uses as well as crossover into .mobi for those that missed the initial buy-in or where the reserved names are too expensive. With the fast advancement of video into mobile devices, I also wouldn’t rule out a .tv push into the mobile market share. I saw today that Time-Warner Cable is offering cellular service married to their VOIP serivces with some of their cable TV feeds to their mobile phones, in Austin, TX and Cincinnati, OH. The market for TLD’s for telephony devices could get much larger than the current partners in .mobi. Verizon is not part of the .mobi group, and could decide to go another way.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
It looks to me like .tel domains will function primarily as phone number substitutes — devices, software and phones can dial a company by calling .tel instead of a phone number.
For non-trademark owners, is the opportunity here for generics — putting a flower store at the end of flowers.tel, a bookstore at books.tel, and so on?
January 28th, 2008 at 6:13 am
“…while .mobi is offically only for whaling. Oops, I mean is only for the Sopranos. Oops, I mean is for mobile devices.”
One wonders as to why this level of sarcasm and negativity has to be Jay?