Recently in dottel Category

Over the last few weeks we've been working hard on launching a bunch of domain extensions on our own accreditation.

While the main focus of our attention has been on getting the more popular domain extensions up and running (ie. com / net / org / info / biz / mobi etc.,) we've also ended up getting accredited for quite a few other cctlds in the process.

So far this year we've launched:

• mobi
• info
• org
• tel
  
• cm (Cameroon)
  
• me (Montenegro)
  
• fm
• im (Isle of Man)
  
• be (Belgium)
  
• gg (Guernsey)
  
• je (Jersey)
  
• co.nl (alternate to .nl, which is for Netherlands)
  

We've also got accredited in quite a few other cctlds, but we haven't gone "live" with them as yet and we also have a few others in the "pipeline".

Why are we doing this?

Simply put by running our own accreditation we can control the situation more and also pass on greater savings to our clients.

If there's an issue with a domain where we are directly accredited it's a lot easier for us to resolve it in a timely manner, whereas when we rely on someone else it can take time and cost more.

When I registered my first domain name about 10 years ago the average cost of a .com domain was about $35. Registering a .ie domain name wasn't really an option unless you were a company.

Nowadays the market has matured considerably. The retail market, which we cater for primarily, treats domains as commodities, so price is an important deciding factor. Registering a .com domain is no longer the cost of dinner, but maybe the cost of a cup of coffee and a croissant. I'd love to think that people choose registrars based on factors other than price, but that would be to deny reality. People are always going to be attracted by lower prices - service and other factors don't come into play for most of them.

With that in mind we've been doing our best to keep our prices as low as possible, while also retaining a reasonable margin.

In the coming weeks we hope to "go live" with .com and .net on our own accreditation, while we're also working on integrating several cctlds that we aren't currently offering.

So if there's a domain extension that you think we should be offering please let us know. We won't guarantee that we'll offer it, as many of the domain extensions either lack in automation or have quite restrictive rules. However we will look at each and every suggestion.

Keep an eye out for more special offers on domain name registrations - we're working hard to get as many deals as we can!

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If I hadn't warned people in advance I might feel mildly guilty about all these domain related announcements ..

If you're a regular reader you may have noticed that I have a small passion for the .tel namespace. I think the concept behind .tel is very cool and if there is enough "buy in" it could prove to be very revolutionary indeed. Of course it's not without its funny side!

As of yesterday evening we are now processing all new .tel domain registrations via our own ICANN accreditation. This means that you are dealing with us from start to finish.

Any new .tel domains will be managed via telhosting.blacknight.com and you'll get login details within a few minutes of registering the domain. We've also setup the system to automatically populate the domain with some basic NAPTR records so that it goes "llive" as quickly as possible.

Once your domain is registered and you have your telhosting login you can create your content and decide which contact details you want to share with whom.

If you're an iPhone user there are two apps you can get for .tel:

• my.tel - which allows you to manage your .tel easily from your mobile
• Superbook - which polls your iphone's address book for any .tel entries and then brings up the full contents (very cool!)

For Blackberry there's an app that integrates tightly with the address book, while Microsoft Outlook users can try this plugin.

Already have a .tel domain? You can easily integrate it with your existing website if you follow the instructions over here.

On days like today I wish I had a Blackberry or an iPhone...

Telnic, the guys who run dottel, have made available some new applications for users of Blackberry and iPhone.

If you have either device you can grab the software on the Telnic downloads site (mobile accessible)

I'd love to know how people get on with the software and am almost tempted to get myself an iPhone or Blackberry just to try it out ..

I "hangout" on a lot of domain related fora and blogs, so when I saw this I just had to share it with our readers (click to enlarge)



Comic strip reproduced with permission from Chef Patrick

General registrations for .tel have been open for the last couple of days and it's been interesting to see the level of interest being shown.

Of course not everyone is going to take to .tel immediately, but it's interesting to see what people are doing with their .tel domains...

We've got our main brand up and running with a .tel domain. If you explore it you will see how we've setup separate sections for our UK and US clients for example. We will, naturally, be adding more links and contact data over the next while.

But what of our clients? What we do with a .tel isn't that relevant. What is relevant is seeing how our clients take the .tel concept and make it their own.

So here's a couple of examples (bear in mind that we have zero control over how the data is presented or what is presented):

• Reverb Studios
• Black Dog
• PuddleDucks

So far most of the .tel domains I've seen are either personal or business ie. I'm yet to see anyone running with the portal type idea, though I'm sure it will come in time

Of course the real power of .tel only really starts to kickin when you start actively using it with your existing devices and software. You can get some software to play around with directly from the TelNic site where they have provided software / plugins for:

• Outlook
• iPhone
• Windows Mobile
• Blackberry

Unfortunately there isn't anything available for OSX at the moment, but I'm sure someone will produce something before too long ...

If you want to play around with a .tel then grab one now - we're doing them for a mere EUR15 / year ex-vat




 

I've mentioned the .tel domains a couple of times in the past.

Today at 3pm finally sees the arrival of "general registration" when anyone who wants to grab a .tel domain will be able to do so on a "first come, first served" basis without paying "over the odds".

You will be able to order a .tel domain via our website from 3pm today onwards at a cost of EUR15 / year.

A couple of things to bear in mind:

• .tel does not support "normal websites"
• You cannot specify your own nameservers - all .tel domains will be hosted by Telnic

Dottel allows you to store and share information safe in the knowledge that only the people you want will get to see it.

For a live demo check out my personal .tel mneylon.tel

Unless I know you personally you won't be able to access things like my mobile phone number or instant message contact details.

It will be interesting to see what kind of stuff people get up to with their .tel domains, but I suspect it will take a few months (if not longer) before we see some of the cooler applications.

If anyone has any questions about .tel please do let us know

When I attended the ICANN meeting in Lisbon back in 2007 I got introduced to several of the dotMobi team, but I also got to meet a few of the guys from dotTel. At the time I'd got my head around the concept of dotmobi, but I honestly couldn't understand why dotTel was different.

While I now do understand the difference it's obvious from the online chatter that a lot of people still don't fully understand the key differences between the two namespaces.

I was going to write a simple explanation, but fortunately the dotMobi team have already done it for me.

Vance's post from a couple of weeks ago goes into the main differences between mobi(le) and tel(ephone) that is the key differenciator between the two TLDs and is definitely worth reading.

UPDATE: As the .tel sunrise is opening tomorrow the level of press coverage they are attracting is increasing. A post over on the New York Times site is well worth reading if you're still trying to come to grips with .tel domains:
.Tel Them Where to Find You

I've mentioned the upcoming launch of .tel a couple of times in recent months.

If you're interested in playing around with .tel domains, then head on over to their "playground", where you can signup for a free vip.tel subdomain.

The VIP program allows you to see how a .tel domain can work and some of the things that you can do with it, though with something as flexible as a domain name it's impossible to know what people may get up to in the end.

In any case I had a chat with Adrian Weckler in The Sunday Business Post last week, which led to this article in the Sunday Business Post. Just to clarify one point, as some people seem to have misunderstood me, I never suggested that .tel would be a flop - I'm just naturally cautious about how quickly it will be adopted. I hope the takeup is huge, because I love the concept.

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I've met the guys from Telnic a few times at this stage.

Admittedly when I first heard about the entire dottel (.tel) project and concept I was more than a little confused. I knew and understood what .mobi was about, so I couldn't really understand what .tel could bring to the table.

Fortunately I got to meet Jim Reid at ICANN in LA and he was kind of enough to give me a few minutes of his time to demo the .tel system. To say that it blew me away is an understatement.

The concept behind dotTel is sheer genius.

One of the problems we all face is keeping track of people and businesses.

People change their email addresses, get new mobile numbers and change their numbers.

Keeping up to date with the changes is far from easy.

With dotTel individuals and business users will be able to register their names and use them to store their contact details.

Since so much of our communication these days is electronic ie. we rely on our phone's memory or our computer's address book and less on paper hard copies, it is a logical step to harness this.

Imagine if you could add micheleneylon.tel to your address book once and never have to update it manually ever again. Why worry about me changing my email address or phone number when your computer or handheld device can do a simple "lookup" for you?

Unlike other domain names that are designed  to handle email and websites, the dottel namespace is concerned with storing contact details only.

If you are a multinational for example, then you can easily setup subdomains such as dublin.blacknight.tel etc., to hold the city specific contact details.

Of course you'll all have to wait a couple of more months before you'll be able to take advantage of what the guys in Telnic have been cooking up, but the range of applications and plugins that they have on the way is bound to impress.

Imagine if you could harness .tel as a form of openid? What if you could login to multiple systems via your openid style domain instead of worrying about multiple emails, passwords and usernames... The very concept of this gives me goosebumps!

I for one will be signing up for mine as soon as I can!

If you want to see what .tel can do check out celebrity.tel. If you navigate to Hollywood > Jessica Alba you can then see what data they have for her on their system, which is really sweet.

Last week's ICANN meeting proved to be incredibly busy, both in terms of number of attendees and the number of announcements made.

From our point of view there were a number of topics that are relevant and important to our business and I'll be posting about some of these in the coming weeks both here and on my personal domain blog.

Last Thursday morning I was on the panel for a workshop on IPv6. There were four of us on the panel talking about our experiences from very different angles. If nothing else I definitely feel that I learnt something from it.

Of course the big announcement of the week was in relation to new Gtlds. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to have cherrypicked from the announcements and now seem to think that all sorts of crazy domain extensions will now be available. They won't. (I'll follow up on this over the next few days).

As John mentioned on his blog, ICANN have finally taken steps to mitigate "domain tasting". It won't stop it outright, but it should curtail it quite a bit. It will also have the handy side-effect of stopping Network Solutions' practice of "holding" domains for "clients", as they won't be able to do it without incurring a fee.

The Afilias team were at ICANN Paris in full force and held a drinks reception to celebrate the launch of dotme (Montenegro).

Closer to home (relatively speaking), Telnic announced their launch timeline. They've also started rolling out demo applications so that both users and developers can get a "feel" for the things you can do with a dottel domain (.tel).

The next few months should be an interesting time for the domain industry!

ICANN's 32nd International public meeting opened in Paris yesterday morning.

There are several hot topics on the agenda and judging by the crowds of people at last night's welcome cocktail, attendance levels are good.

If you're interested in finding out more head over to the meeting's official site where you can find details of meetings, talks, presentations and more.

The areas that are bound to attract attention this week are quite diverse and encompass topics such as new TLDs, the launch of .tel (dottel), Whois (again!), registry failover, the registrar agreement and both IDNs and IPv6. (Can you say "acronym hell"??)

Of course no ICANN meeting would be complete without an equally busy social agenda and last night's welcome cocktail at La Defense (photo above) was no different. Wednesday's gala dinner is being held in yet another famous Parisian landmark (more on that Thursday I hope!)

Every time a new TLD launches the registry operators have to come up with ways of distributing "premium" names.

Premium names are the "super" domains that are usually dictionary words or close to them. These domains are easy to remember and easy to get to. The most heavily demanded ones are usually related to the adult industry, so it's not surprising to see that there is always a heavy demand for sex.tld (where tld is the TLD in question)

In the case of dotEU Eurid ran a couple of "sunrise" periods, which were open to trademark and other prior rights holders ie. entities that had a valid claim on a name via a trademark or other method. Even though dotEU has been up and running for some time there are still plenty of legal battles being fought over the sunrise domains.

With dotAsia they have opted for a number of sunrise periods as well, but they also added in an auction scheme to make it more "interesting". If more than one request was made for a domain name in landrush then the domain is automatically put into an auction which is being managed by Pool. What makes it all the more interesting is that some people are suspecting foul play.

Personally I find the entire system of auctions quite confusing and frustrating, as I've ended up bidding against myself for at least one name. I won't be able to use the domain until someone wins the auction!

Oh well... hopefully dotTel will do a better job of their launch!