.tel – the modern phonebook?

How concerned are you about the world knowing your mobile phone number, your Skype ID and your home address? If you’re the kind of person who has your Facebook profile on lockdown, look away now – this might bring you out in a rash. In contrast, if you’re more of the open pursuasion, .tel might be for you.

The idea is that it’s a new .domain which can host all your contact information. So, I could buy susiweaser.tel, and then stop giving out my business card, instead telling people to check out my .tel page (and remember my name). The example given in the video is Emma.tel, but I suspect Emma Smith might end up as EmmaSmith1582.tel.

There are certainly advantages to having all your contact details on one page, and there are ways of only authorising certain people to view certain details, but I imagine that slightly defeats the point. And with an increased number of devices you can access the internet on, it’s no bad thing to be able to get phone numbers etc on the move.

One other thing: you can add your own keywords so people can search for your profile. So, ‘PR’, ‘jazz lover’, but really, how long til people start searching for sex? Srsly.

Registration has opened in the last few minutes, so if you’ve got a fairly common name, you might want to go and buy your domain now.

.tel