4 ms·
This was the original plan for the .tel domain. You could store all your contact details in DNS. Then your address book would have an entry like http://bob.tel
by edent 6y ago
This was the original plan for the .tel domain. You could store all your contact details in DNS.
Then your address book would have an entry like http://bob.tel/ http://bob.tel/ which would always contain your contact's latest info.
It turns out that most normal people see a decaying address book as a feature, not a bug. If you are a meaningful contact - you'll send me new details. If not, the data can rot.
Telnic still offer this service - but I had a tel name since the start, and never saw anyone else use their features.
Here's their cheesy product marketing video from back in the day https://youtu.be/8jyB_7sh2S8 https://youtu.be/8jyB_7sh2S8
- axaxs 6y agoThis is what I was thinking also. Tel was(is?) more or less locked down so you can only put contact info on the site itself, also.
- ryukafalz 6y agoIt's a shame, because if this kind of thing had caught on, VoIP calls could be substituted for PSTN calls and the user wouldn't have to notice. Imagine calling amazon.com and getting their customer support line either via PSTN or via VoIP (provided you/they have e.g. SIP accounts, which obviously isn't a good assumption now but would sure be an easier transition in this hypothetical world). Even better: imagine being able to set reverse DNS in this scenario. I call someone who doesn't have me in their address book, and their phone shows "<my nickname>.tel".
- tdeck 6y agoWow, this scenario is basically copied from the old PalmPilot ad: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6bcTc8e2-6U https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6bcTc8e2-6U