
.Tel Them Where to Find You  - prakash
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/tel-them-where-to-find-you/
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shimon
There is something very smart going on here, but it's not the idea of using
DNS to store contact information. What's smart is the ability of Telnic and
its affiliated registrars to convince everyone (ICANN, NYT, probably most HN
readers) that they're trying to do something vaguely cool but naive, when in
fact they're just going to cash in a huge gift from the internet.

Here's the secret: new top-level domains are virtually guaranteed to make tons
of money for registrars. Every medium-sized to large company is going to buy a
domain in a new TLD; it's worth the cost just to avoid having to deal with a
squatter later, even if it is (gasp) $400. If you can convince ICANN that you
have good intentions, or that you need a country code even though you're part
of the United States _cough_.pr _cough_ you are going to get a lot of easy
money over many years.

And yet, we'll still look back at this in a few years and say "yeah, those
.tel guys must be really pissed that nobody adopted their cute little
standard."

How naive indeed.

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jerf
This is incredibly stupid. I can add any record I like to my DNS. If things
start querying DNS for those records, fine. But... what is _.tel_ bringing to
the party? My DNS server which happens to be at a .org can serve any records
it likes!

As CompanyX, why would I want to buy companyx.tel, instead of just sticking
those records on my existing companyx.com?

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johns
"It will just need to get some traction."

Oh, that's all.

~~~
bprater
Always wondered what the '???????' between 'Create service' and 'Profit' was.
Now I know!

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mixmax
I'm no expert on DNS, but this struck me:

 _Individuals can also choose to display their location, allowing their
contacts to see where they are at any given time and opening the door for
location-based services._

As far as I know DNS takes up to 24 hours to update all nameservers, rendering
this service completely useless.

Am I wrong on this?

~~~
TheBosch
Now I could be wrong on this, but I _believe_ that's at the EXTREME end of
things, I would say with the way DNS is updated now it usually takes under an
hour at most. At least that's my personal experience.

~~~
mixmax
Thanks for clarifying :-)

But under an hour still kills the concept of location based services.

~~~
notauser
Under an hour still works for 'who is in London for dinner tonight'.

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jmatt
Wasn't that what the .info was for?

It's not a bad idea. It seems just as likely to end up as another haven for
domain name proprietors.

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pchristensen
Trying to think of domain hacks: hos.tel is the only one that comes to mind.
Maybe dontaskdont.tel?

~~~
mixmax
in.tel ?

~~~
mixmax
on a slightly related note: If you really want a free iphone steve.jobs is not
registered :-)

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mdolon
From the vids I saw, the main benefits of getting a .Tel domain is so people
can easily retrieve your contact by going to your .Tel site either on their PC
or mobile device. This information, in turn, can easily be updated by some
kind of admin panel by the user, which in turn is updated by anyone else
retrieving the info.

Couldn't this same thing be achieved with a simple script and a database? I
fail to see the utility of going to a .Tel domain rather than company.com/info
or something else. Is it just to bypass the need for hosting?

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TheBosch
I think this is a good idea if it takes off. Being able to add billgates.tel
to your various e-mail accounts and having your e-mail programs update your
contacts daily and before you send an e-mail to that person would be
incredibly helpful.

I just got my first smart phone yesterday and am having trouble trying to
think of the best place to keep a 'master' copy of my contact records. This
could easily solve that problem.

~~~
wheels
So could a decent LinkedIn API.

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volida
good luck charging the generation-FREE

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kirpekar
competition to chi.mp ?

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newt0311
Great idea but DNS is not exactly the most secure of protocols. Also, the
current domains can already do this through arbitrary records (as has been
mentioned already).

