.tel top-level domain utilises information in DNS rather than hosted content

The forthcoming .tel domain will be used to present contact and communication information as opposed to hosting web content. Technically, the contact information will be stored as part of the DNS information rather than presented as part of a hosted website.

A potential benefit of this is that as there is no hosted content on this domain it will be less attractive to cyber-squatters because without hosted content there is no support for the usual pay-per-click advertising that cybersquatters rely on.

The main reason behind the new domain is to make contact information available in an agnostic format – presenting the information in whatever way best suits the computer, mobile phone or other connected device that requests the information. The .tel method presents an interesting alternative to the as yet under-utilised ‘microformats’ approach, which relies on marking up contact information in a particular way within the presentation of hosted content.