#FF00AA

A .tel domain name links to the contact information of businesses, organizations and individuals. Information can include telephone numbers; links to Web sites, including a Facebook or MySpace page; e-mail addresses; instant messaging names, and, if you wish, identities for virtual games like Xbox Live or Second Life. […]

Because the data is stored in the DNS, rather than on a server, when a person updates a phone number or address using their .tel account, it is automatically updated in the address books of their friends who have their .tel information stored on a smartphone or other mobile device.

Wow, that’s clever.

It’s not like there aren’t already lots of services that try to be the reference point for your contact information — Facebook probably being the most successful for consumer-level use — but the idea of subverting DNS domain registration to make Telnic look like the one and only official, reliable place to store your information is a fantastic coup.

I particularly love how they want you to believe that, just because it’s loosely linked to a DNS whois database, the information will magically be updated in everyone’s address books whenever you change it. I finally managed to find out on the website, in annoying slideshow videos, that Telnic offered plug-ins for Outlook, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Don’t expect .tel domains to ever be handled by Gmail or the iPhone address book, for instance (well, unless your contacts willing to give Telnic their Google or MobileMe password, I guess).

And I said “loosely” because you’re supposed to have control over who’s able to access which bit of your information, which means that most of your contact info is actually not in the whois database, but only in the registrar’s proprietary database. Which just happens to look like it’s been legitimized by the fact that it’s connected to a top-level domain name.

The initial registration period is open only to businesses and organizations with trademarked names that want to secure the related .tel address for a fee of about $400 a year (that’s what DomainMonster charges, but prices will vary by registrar). A “land rush” period, in which anyone can buy domain names for around $150 a year, begins Feb. 3. After March 24, domain names will be available for around $20 a year.

For the record, I don’t think it’s going to be widely adopted, and I don’t think anyone should buy a .tel domain; the reason I’m impressed by Telnic’s cleverness is that it will work commercially — I’m pretty sure they’re gonna manage to get a very nice treasure chest from this idea.

Look at how they’re already getting free, unquestioning fluff pieces in the New York Times. It’s not coincidence that the article happens to reference Second Life; this is yet another success story for tech PR.