.tel Domains: Your Virtual Business Card

CNN writes about plans of a new .tel top level domain that would help people manage all their contact information online at a central location.

For example, Microsoft is known as www.microsoft.com on the web, www.microsoft.tel will provide a logical, easy to remember web address holding Microsoft contact information.

Earlier, most had a single phone number but now there are home, cell and work phone numbers from which to choose, and sometimes work extensions to remember. There are also e-mail addresses, IM aliases, web pages, blogs, separate profiles on MySpace, LinkedIn and Ryze.

As proposed, individuals could use a ".tel" Web site to provide the latest contact information and perhaps even let friends initiate a call or send a text message directly from the site. Businesses could use a ".tel" site to determine customers' locations and route them automatically to the correct call center.

Related: ICANN .TEL Application
Read: Internet agency .tel domain name