TELNIC, the organization behind the .tel domain extension, launched the registration of trademark domains first, to end with the complete opening registration of .tel domains both for individuals and for companies. What is the big buzz about this new TLD (Top Level Domain) extension ? Well…explained in simple words, when you look for a website address on the browser, this address points directly to a domains/IP association database called DNS (Domain Name Server). This database only stores information about which domain or email points to that IP. The Technology behind .tel TLD’s is that now this databases will store not only information about the domain A-Records (Address Records) itself, but will also store information targeted to be consumed by humans, not by machines. This means that if you type “John Doe.tel” or “imb.tel” you will be able to retrieve contact information about that particular identity, social websites linkage, VoIP addresses, MSN, Skype, etc. If that data was stored by the publisher in first place. Now…if all spammers already used domain registry, registrars WHOIS information data and more chunks to fill endless email databases, what will happen if you add PERSONAL DELICATE information to the world largest and quick-to query world database. Relevant tip: When you add or retrieve information from a website, you are querying a database that is hosted on a database server inside a web-server located in any place around the globe, the .tel DNS technology is meant to be faster and more protocol friendly than any of its competitors and other domain technologies. And what is more important…everybody is welcome to query it.
The idea and the technology seem to be quite promising, other similar initiatives as openid.org are trying to cut down on the steps we take to communicate with websites and to each other, unfortunately every good action is always harmful in the wrong hands, spammers have found the way to overcome the latest anti-spam techs, and what is worse, wordpress and blogging spam is increasing daily, a world contact information database open to everybody is a dangerous territory if you dont wear the right shield.
