The Internet’s new contacts directory

The .tel top level domain is not just another TLD, but a completely new way of putting your contact details on the Internet, writes Varun Aggarwal

Have you ever wondered how many contacts in your contact list are outdated? How many people have your new telephone numbers or your e-mail address? It is often a herculean task to update everyone about your new numbers, especially when you are traveling and have a temporary local number or when you have changed your company or your city.

The solution to all such problems lies in .tel, a new Top Level Domain (TLD), like .com or .in. However, the similarity to all other top level domains ends there. Instead of hosting a Web site, it enables you to store your information on the infrastructure of the Internet. Its creator, Telnic, is the first company to use the DNS (Domain Name System), which usually just translates domain names into Web IP addresses, to store all your means of communication. By storing information directly into the DNS, there is no need for a Web site—that information is just quickly, easily accessible to any connected device, in real time.

Fabien Chalandon, Vice-Chairman of Telnic, explained, “.tel aims to become the yellow pages for Internet users who are seeking contact information for both individuals and businesses. Unlike normal Web sites, which are often laden with graphics, animation and text, transmission of data from .tel sites is lighting quick as it hosts only ‘lightweight’ contact information. This expedites the process of information retrieval, a crucial consideration when users are surfing on their mobile devices. Traditional Web sites are about content while .tel is about cutting out the unwanted content in a situation where people just simply want to connect with an individual and business in the fastest way possible.”

The technology

The .tel is the first TLD to harness NAPTR, TXT and LOC records within the DNS and thereby power a compelling solution for contact management that enables both individuals and businesses to store data directly within the DNS.

NAPTR records are a recent and more flexible DNS resource than the conventional Address records used so far. The stability and robustness of NAPTR records have been proven in a protocol called ENUM, a mechanism for translating telephone numbers into domain names.

However, unlike ENUM, .tel is unencumbered by the regulatory environment found in the conventional telephony world. Additionally, unlike ENUM, .tel is not linked to a single phone number and is therefore portable.

NAPTR records are at the core of what makes the .tel domain powerful and meaningful to individuals and businesses. These NAPTR records will allow for the publication and management of contact information in a way never before possible, including phone numbers (both mobile and fixed line), email addresses, fax numbers, VoIP service identities such as Skype, AIM, MSN (and allow users to distinguish between them), links to Web pages, maps and blogs.

These NAPTR records can also point to other NAPTR records, allowing for navigation through a tree of contact information based on geography, department or any other segmentation. They allow for unlimited updating of dynamically changing content and offer immediate global access to all newly updated information. You can encrypt them to protect confidential data and all data returned within the NAPTR records is clickable, enabling a click-to-communicate feature, which makes communication using the .tel as easy as possible for the users.

In addition to storing NAPTR records, the .tel uses Text records or TXT records stored directly within the DNS. These TXT records allow for the publication of text-based information such as names, titles, mailing addresses, and keywords that will help users search for and find the right person or business they wish to contact. These keywords may be easily indexed and searched, enabling the creation of a DNS-based global white and yellow pages directory service.

Lastly, the .tel TLD uses Location records or LOC records to publish geo-location information. This allows businesses and individuals to indicate their precise location. The benefits of publishing live LOC records will increase as more advanced location-based services emerge over the coming years.

A boon for SMBs

The .tel TLD enables you to create a fully interactive and live communications hub to take control over how and where customers communicate with you. Using YourCompany.tel, you can publish all your means of communication, for example: phone, mobile, fax, premium numbers, VoIP and IM handles and e-mail addresses. You can also store Web links, geo-location data and keywords describing your business. YourCompany.tel offers you an entry into the first global directory, allowing you to own and control all your contact information and update it in real-time whenever you wish.

In contrast to existing directory services that are highly fragmented and expensive, .tel provides worldwide coverage, full control and real-time updating for only a fraction of the cost. YourCompany.tel allows you to route customers to the department or location of their choice using a quick and intuitive navigation structure based on innovative DNS technology.

YourCompany.tel makes your business or brand instantly accessible from any device connected to the Internet. Your customers simply type in YourCompany.tel into a browser, select a method of contact and click to initiate communication.

YourCompany.tel is optimized for mobile devices since it uses small and fast DNS lookups rather than pulling traditional Web site and html content. It therefore enables people using mobile devices to find you quickly and easily. The optimization is already complete for Blackberry, Windows Mobile and iPhone, which means apart from speedy lookup, you can also save the .tel page as a business card to your phone. Telnic is working on optimizing for Nokia and other handsets.

Chalandon said, “People often face troubles getting through IVRs (Interactive voice response) as it often gets too complicated. With .tel, you can eliminate the need for IVRs with a central repository for all your contacts. You also do not need to register in multiple yellow pages. Many services can be built around .tel, which is built on the open source Java platform. One of our registrars in India, Net 4 India Ltd is working on a service to query .tel pages for contact numbers through SMS. Such services can make .tel even more beneficial for the masses.”

Increase your page ranks

Optimizing a Web site primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. As a Web site does not have a standard structure and is created with look and feel in mind more than computer algorithms, Web sites are often difficult to optimize and take significant management in order to keep them at the top of the results table.

In general, the rules for Searh engine optimization are fluid and constantly change in line with best practice. However, there are a number of benefits to a .tel domain when it comes to search and optimization over and above other sources, which will enable a .tel owner to be confident that it will continue to be a high ranking search result.

All the content in a .tel domain is machine-readable. When a search engine looks at the NAPTR/TXT/LOC records it will not need to figure out what they mean AT ALL, it will be perfectly machine-readable and machine-understandable.

For example, in Henri.tel, when you see a TXT record that says:

‘nl’ ‘my name’ ‘fn’ ‘henri’ ‘ln’ ‘asseily’ ‘nn’ ‘rik’

This means: This line is a name, and its label is ‘my name’. The first name is ‘henri’, the last name is ‘asseily’, and the nickname is ‘rik’.

This information is automatically structured when someone fills in the contact information in his or her .tel. It is far more effective than meta-tagging information within Web pages, highlighting to Google the site map and providing links to third-party relevant content in order to increase relevance by association. “A .tel plays a fundamentally different role than a traditional .com, .net, etc. It has a very specific and unique content and is published in a different format and medium (DNS instead of Web). Therefore, Google and other search engines will want to index .tel content in addition to .com content. For a company having both a .com and a .tel is not a disadvantage, as opposed to those that multiply Web sites under .com, .biz, .co.uk, etc. This will give companies double presence, with both a .com and a .tel,” explained Chalandon.

Get set go

.tel sunrise registrations are already closed. Landrush is open to everyone and have begun from February 3, 2009. Landrush applications will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis. General Availability is open to everyone and will begin on March 24, 2009. General Availability applications will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.

To try out .tel, you can visit telnic.org and register for a free vip.tel trial registration and experience the benefits of .tel yourself.

varun.aggarwal@expressindia.com