With new rule changes in the management of top level domain name extensions, look to see a number of new web addresses become available over the next few years. ICANN has released its draft application guidebook for those who may be considering registering their ideas as an alternative to dot com. The summary is basically: $185,000 in application fees are required, you must be an organization in good standing with an established history and infrastructure in domain name licensing / registration, and you must pass a review period which will include the filing of objections from other claimants to the extension name under consideration. Organizations that claim to represent a particular community must establish proof that they actually do represent the group officially. The PDF file with all the information on the process can be downloaded at:

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-rfp-24oct08-en.pdf

The newest TLD to be launched under these guidelines is the .tel extension, a sponsored TLD registered with the Telnic Corporation. Telnic is planning a global telephone book type of directory with contact information linked to DNS settings. According to Wikipedia, “.tel is about publishing contact data: phone numbers, SIP addresses and so on directly in the DNS, not on html-based websites.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tel

.tel registration has opened for registered trademark owners:
December 3rd, 2008 – February 2nd, 2009

After that, they are expecting a “landrush” – registrations open to the public but at a premium price: February 3rd, 2009 – March 23rd, 2009

With general availability under standard prices opening March 24th, 2009.

According to Telnic, with the .tel extension a business can:

• Join a global online directory that provides you instant worldwide exposure…
• Integrate all your means of communication in a single place under your control…
• Update and manage your contact information and keywords in real time…
• Increase your search engine visibility through descriptive keywords…
• Provide a fast way for your customers to connect with you in a single click from any mobile device…

Individuals can:

• Manage all the ways people can reach you in a single place that’s yours forever
• Protect your private data
• Take back control of your personal information and share it securely
• … all without the need to build, host or manage a website.

Source: http://telnic.org/

There are 5 types of information that can be stored on a .tel domain.

• Contact Information – telephone numbers, mobile phone numbers, email, VoIP, fax numbers, etc
• Content Links – http & ftp addresses
• Navigation Links – By country, city, branch, department, etc.
• Geolocation – Map information
• Indexable Text – Keywords & Information

Source: http://telnic.org/business-discover1.html

In a sense, Telnic is combining elements of a web directory, social network, and SEO link exchange with a TLD organization to standardize it, which is an interesting and innovative business model which separates it from the way all of the other TLDs operate. Apparently, Jeff Pulver also contested for this domain extension with a VoIP business model, but lost out in the end to Telnic.

See Jeff Pulver’s blog at: http://www.pulver.com/

Of the seven domains introduced in the last round of TLD expansion in 2001-2002, .biz, .info, .name, and .pro were unsponsored while .aero, .coop, and .museum were sponsored and restricted. Less than half of those are used popularly, and even then, .biz, .info, and .name are marginal to the point of being irrelevant for most published websites. Most people have probably never heard of .pro, which Wikipedia sites at less than 7,000 registrants at the beginning of 2008. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.pro)

So, will the new TLDs be successful, and what is coming next? In an old article written during the time that .mobi and .xxx were under consideration, the W3C committee actually came out against them.

“The addition of new top-levels domains is a very disturbing influence. It carries great cost. It should only be undertaken when there is a very clear benefit to the new domain. In the case of the proposed .mobi domain, the change is actually detrimental… The first effect is a little like printing more money. The value of one’s original registration drops. At the same time, the cost of protecting one’s brand goes up (from the cost of three domains to four, five, …).”

“The value of each domain name such as example.com also drops because of brand dilution and public confusion. Even though most people largely ignore the last segment of the name, when it is actually used to distinguish between different owners, this increases the mental effort required to remember which company has which top level domain. This makes the whole name space less usable. Is it fair to reduce the value of these domains which have been acquired at great cost by their owners?”

Source: http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/TLD

It will be interesting to see what happens, expect the large multinational corporations to snap up proprietary TLD name extensions (.ibm, .mac, .ebay etc.) and registrars to gamble on launching another series of “landrushes” with TLDs based on marketing campaigns. Telnic has clearly set apart the management of .tel from other TLDs, hopefully other firms will come up with new business models that make the investment worthwhile. Even with the possibility of brand dilution, these improvements will only strengthen the value of dot com.

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ICANN: $185,000 for your own Top Level Domain Extension