Google has launched its own “create your own profile” service pretty much along the lines of what the .Tel extension is suppose to be for.
If your logged into your gmail account and Google yourself, you will be prompted to fill in your all your contact info, which others can then use to find or contact you.
A friend pointed this out to me yesterday in congratulating me on the DnJournal piece. (Thanks Ron)
If your inclined, you can give Google the following information, “to make it easy for people to find you”:
Your full name, “other names” you might have used, where you live, places you lived, what you do for a living, what company you work for, former companies you worked for, the schools you attended, your interests, and room for a short bio.
You can also add photos, the URL’s of your websites, your e-mail addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, even your birthday.
My first thought, who wants to provide all your personal information to Google, that may be visible to everyone in the world? (You can limit access)
My second thought, .Tel is screwed.
The whole purpose of .Tel was to have a simple page for people to access your contact information, including your phone numbers, e-mail addresses and websites.
Yet .tel isn’t free.
And .Tel is limited as to the information it can provide.
Google Profile is free, and will be known to substantially more of the general population than .Tel will a year from now.
I have nothing against the .Tel extension, and own a few myself. I also understand that the backers of the extension have incurred substantial time and expense in launching the extension.
However, I have to call it like I see it, and the way I see it, Google’s Profile service eliminates the underlying reason for the .Tel extension, in the same way .Mobi’s reason to exist took a huge hit once Apple put out the iPhone.
This is of course is the major risk when an extension is built for a specific purpose.
Technology can eliminate the need for it overnight.
Here is the FAQ from Google on their new Profile service:
“”””A Google profile is simply how you present yourself on Google products to other Google users. It allows you to control how you appear on Google and tell others a bit more about who you are. With a Google profile, you can easily share your web content on one central location. You can include, for example, links to your blog, online photos, and other profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. You have control over what others see. Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it.
You can also allow people to find you more easily by enabling your profile to be searched by your name. Simply set your existing profile to show your full name publicly.
If you’ve been writing reviews on Google Maps, creating articles on Google Knol, sharing Google Reader items, or adding books to your Google Book Search library, you may already have a profile.
Sample profile
Receive messages. Enable the ‘Send a message’ feature to allow anyone with a Google Account to email you without revealing your email address.
Add photos. Enhance your profile by embedding photos from Flickr or Picasa.
Create a page about you. Write a short bio in the About me tab, reveal your superpower, and tell people what you still can’t find using Google.
Add your contact information. Share your information with your friends and family, so they always have the most up-to-date information. You control who sees it.
Add links to your other profiles and sites. Make it easier for friends to see your other content on the Web. You can link to Google content, including your Blogger blog, public Picasa Web Albums and Google Reader shared items as well as other pages on the Web such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Show your location. ‘My places’ includes all the cities you’ve entered on your profile. Your current location and where you’ve lived are displayed on a map.
Google Profiles have been around for a number of months. If you look in my .tel you’ll see a link to mine 🙂
Not everyone wants to give all of their personal data over to Google.
The information is not encrypted when it is stored privately as far as I know.
At present, I’m not aware that you can ‘dial’ a Google Profile. With more and more softphones from digitrad, kiax, voipGATE and others now supporting direct DNS lookups, you can dial a .tel.
The granular ability for .tel domains to be managed down to the individual piece of contact information for an individual person and with 1024-bit encryption also we believe sets this apart.
But the fundamental thing is that as it’s your domain, it remains your data and there are no terms and conditions to sign that say anyone but yourself owns it.
So we believe that people will pay for privacy and we also believe that, given you can store up to 300,000 pieces of contact information in the domain that it will suit everyone from an individual up to a multi-national corporation.
I think the likes of chi.mp and gizapage which are social aggregators may have a few more issues with the Google brand, but given .tel crosses a number of different categories from contact page, through to business card and on to communications method, supporting search engine results and real-time communications hub, there are plenty of features within the .tel to make it a compelling purchase even with Google in the marketplace.
Sure, there are always other services out there. But given the need today for discoverability on the internet, no one’s going to have ‘just’ one place, especially when there’s no silver bullet.
Regards,
Justin Hayward
Telnic Limited
justin.tel
Justin is right, Google profiles are ‘old’ and they do not get indexed. They merely sit at the bottom of the SERP. If you want to control your personal brand, it is a great tool and, when optimized properly, will help you capture valuable real estate in the SERPs. Today, mine is on page 1 for my name, right below LinkedIn and right above facebook and twitter. .TEL is not the end all be all, but it is one tool of many you should consider employing to boost rankings.
Jay Lohmann
http://www.AdvertisingAndDesign.net
By the way, search for ‘Justin Hayward’ in Google and see where Google Profiles comes and where Justin.tel comes.
I’ll never beat the lead singer of the Moody Blues of course, but it’s not a bad result…
I’ve said several times that I think that a service like what .tel is doing using DNS or some other method of “directory assistance using a domain name” is a vital step forward, but that I don’t really have a vested interest in whether or not .tel does it or someone else. You could argue Google Voice is also a step toward removing the need for .tel but right now, .tel is the only full blown solution to the problem. Admittedly though, they still have a ways to go. Ideally this is a service that could be provided on any extension, but I’ll just have to dream about that for awhile. .Tel is a risky investment if you are buying domains for investment purposes, but it’s a pretty low price for a clear service that you can use today and that service will likely improve “tomorrow”.
Just to be clear Jay, you’re saying that .tel is a great tool. And I’m sure Google will not want to make any moves which seem to raise its content above other more authoritative or independent sources, otherwise they would be under a good deal of scrutiny. So it really does come down to the usage and the technology, not necessarily the branding which might be against Google in this instance given its requirement to index the world’s information, necessarily in this case.
Thank you Justin for pointing out reasons that .tel continues to hold value. Google does stand a chance with its android phone introduction to monopolize the results on that platform. Other device manufacturers are more logical potential partners for integrating .tel.
The .tel domain certainly seems to raise ire more than any domain I’ve seen introduced! Right now we’re only building the fire with matches. Just waiting for that ounce of gasoline!
I’m just a lowly subscriber to your articles…but can I please request that you have someone proof read your stuff for grammatical errors? I like your content but it can be distracting, is all. No offense intended.
.Tel died at birth. This is just a memorial
At the current time I believe no has the ability to see the future and what its to become of :
.Tel
.Mobi
Too sad that many people follow their leaders thinking that they have sufficient credentials to what they’re saying. Consequently they are left behind with nothing and hoping to register a name when the opportunity comes.
Even if you don’t believe in .tel or .mobi, it just doesn’t hurt to register a couple in each extension. I keep reading all the time about people that did not register domains in the 90’s because most of us did not believe in the internet future.
Guess what? Those that did not follow the thinking of that time had faith in .com/.org/.net kept registering domains and were able to make a living out of it.
Google profiles and Google voice have both been around for a while. To say that either is going to kill the .tel idea is ridiculous in my opinion.
What is the difference between a Google profile and if I were to create a website for myself under a .com domain name? Nothing.
Both examples above and .TEL domains are like business cards but there is a huge difference with the .TEL example. .TEL is an entry point while Google profile or your personal .com website are content that your .tel points to.
If I have a cell phone accessing .TEL domain names is much quicker, cheaper and provides the basic information that users need 99% of the time. It is also provides single click access to dial or reach content pages (could be the Google Profile) if needed.
I don’t know anyone that has a Google Profile. Yet I know a lot of people and companies that are using Dot Tel domains as their single point access.
Keep in mind all Google Profiles are under one domain name http://www.Google.com/link.htm.
The true value in Dot Tel is the fact that it ties an entity and all of it’s communication routes under one searchable domain name. This has enormous value. The following page discusses some of these values:
http://www.webtrafficconsultants.com/tel-domain-name-advantages-list.htm
To say that Google Profile’s is going to kill Dot Tel would be like saying that Facebook is going to kill .com’s. Companies are creating profiles on Facebook why haven’t they abandoned their hosted .com domains and websites?
In regards to some of the previous comments about Google possibly showing Google Profile results over .TEL. If Google did this they would no longer produce the best results. In the competitive search engine market they are interested in producing the best results so they won’t.
I believe that inevitably all search engines will have to accept and give appropriate weight to .tel search engine results, especially if the user is searching using a cell phone. No one will use a search engine that will rack them a costly data bill when most of the time they are searching for basic entity contact information.
Aside from that most new businesses that are looking for a quick web profile will navigate to the cheapest, quickest and best solution to get online which is .TEL.
Will search engines ignore these people? If these people choose to create a Google Profile and advertise it how will people remember an extended URL? What if Google profiles isn’t around tomorrow, these people will lose their online profiles and their advertising will point to dead pages.
@ Mywebsearches
Actually a good bit of us have been bitten in the past. Some people are still waiting for .CC and .WS to appreciate. Fact is domain is like landed property. Just because it is real estated does not mean you will see value in your lifetime. If you bought land 400 years ago in the wilderness of no were, you land will still be worth the same thing now, “nothing”.
Most comments are usualy made from a realistic position which assumes that you have limited resources. By that very fact one will be more inclined to wager it on an extension that has a greater possibility of success.
Of course if you have a definite plan for the domain, that is another scenerio, but holding on so that you can sell it, too risky.
Ron
I Google myself, my company and the blog once a month or so to find if there is anything malicious out there or anyone is taking the material off the blog and using it as there own.
This is the first time I have ever been asked to fill out my profile on Google.
The product may have been around for a while, but it looks like to me they are being to promote it.
Once enough people fill out their profile and assuming that result appears first on Google, the game may change.
Only time will tell.
I agree with most of the comments on .tel!
PeopleSearches.com
@MHB
The thing is this. Why would you fill out a Google profile? There are people that will but the majority wouldn’t. It is no different than making a Facebook page.
However, I can give you a bunch of reasons I would want a .TEL domain name. If I want to give out my telephone number to someone and they don’t have a pen, all I have to do is give them my .TEL verbally which is easier to remember. What URL would you have to give for Google profiles and Facebook? Would these work verbally?
Secondly, if I could remember your URL and I were to access my phone could I single click on your telephone number? Would it require me to get a pen and paper? Does Facebook or Google Profiles store telephone numbers? How much would it cost to download Facebook and Google Profiles just to get a telephone number?
This is just a few problems of a hundred different reasons that make .TEL unique from these examples that were given.
I also see a lot of people talking in the tone that it is Google vs. Dot Tel when in reality I think Google needs Dot Tel and would like it to grow. A Dot Tel is a technology while a Google Profile is a website, both can compliment each other.
Google could easily change their algoritm to make sure that Google Profiles are above Dot Tel domain names but if they did this it wouldn’t be in their best interest. As the Dot Tel directory expands with more valuable information many people would decide to switch to a search engine that gives Dot Tel weight especially if they are using mobile phones. After all who wants to deal with speed issues and pay extra if Dot tel will offer a cheaper, quicker solution.
There is no evidence that Google is competing with Dot Tel to date. Dot Tel so far is doing extremely well on search engines receiving weight. Aside from .com and the country level domain names it is rank highest.
The reason I think Google is interested in Dot Tel, Google profiles and ideas like this is that it helps them with search results. Getting people to volunteer how things are connected is very important in driving more accurate results for searches.
Finally @Frankie Aladi, your comments about .CC and .WS. What is the utility value of these domain names? I have collected domain names for years but have never even looked at such domains because they don’t have a meaning. You can make a hell of a lot of money speculating on domain names but if the extension has no utility value/usefullness it will be ignored and will be worth nothing.
In the past I have made many investments which have paid off with domain names which included .com, country level tld’s, .asia, .eu and now .tel. While building up a portfolio for each domain extension in the early stages hearing people say that they wouldn’t be worth anything is common. I have proven people wrong in the past.
The domains .biz, .net, .info, .cc, .ws etc. were compeltely ignored by myself.
Dot Tel offers something totally unique which is completely useful especially in this day and age of mobile browsing. I haven’t had this much faith in a domain since .com was released and I’m predicting that by the end of the year we will see a tidal wave of development of these domains and the creation of a ton of applications and software revolving around this domain.
@Frankie
One last comment. There are a lot of people that bought land 400 years ago in an area that was labelled as ‘no where’. Today these areas are somewhere and have made these people rich.
When .com was released it was considered by most as ‘useless’. A space that would never be used. However today you can see that the people that invested in these domains have made quite a fortune in a short period of time.
For .TEL it won’t take long for us to realize whether it is a winner or a total flop. I’m predicting within two years we will mutually agree on this. Maximum 3 years since the development of the .tel directory will be very quick.
It all comes down to the usefullness of the extension and the speed at which development leads to acceptance.
No one should disagree that in the 4 months since Dot Tel was released it has definitely come a long way.
My compliments to Ron Munson, I concur.
I’ll simply add, as it relates to the article above, that “imitation is the greatest form of flattery”; so let the comparisons continue, and we will soon know if .Tel truly are the value and force we, who are developing within .Tel (teldex, prague.tel, praha.tel), think and believe.
It’s also up to Telnic as well; to continue rolling out “enhancements” and “tools” while remaining true to it’s core application. This is not easy in a world of “what have you done for me lately”.
example: a picture speaks a thousand words
I recall the history of advertising and would offer one simple, yet utilitarian “enhancement” for .Tel
Remember how most advertising began? As pictures.
The Locksmith had a ‘Key’ hanging outside his storefront, the dentist a ‘Tooth’, barber shop a ‘red and white rotating stick’, Fishmonger a ‘Fish’, etc… It would be helpful, especially Internationally, to have Telnic provided “Name Icons” in the headers of .Tel, and if unable to “Match” the name with a Name Icon, there could be a limited number of “Generic Icons” owners could chose from, or none at all.
Phone books have been doing it for years as well, and for similar reasons; increasing the ability and speed of communication.
This could also help Global Communications, by attaching ‘meaning’ for peoples of differing languages, to otherwise abstract words.
As an Expat myself, I can attest to the value of such simplified usages of communication 😉
Steve