When .tel domains were first introduced in 2009, they were meant to host minimal information, such as a virtual contact card.
In fact, the .tel promo video promoted the benefits of its domains in a viral commercial.
The “sexy edit” was presented like this:
A woman boards a train and two men take notice of her; as she disembarks, both men grab her attention to give her their contact info. One man frantically scrawls out his phone number in a notebook, the other writing his .tel profile on the window in coffee foam. She chooses the .tel over the number, calling him as she walks away, only to realize that the whole time she was in her panties.
That version was reminiscent of different times, when women were objectified in commercials, a job that GoDaddy perfected with its sexy Super Bowl ads.
Back to 2025.
Dot .tel domains can be fully developed with DNS pointing to external hosting, allowing anything to be displayed.
We came across one such rare gem, Design.tel. Bearing its original 2009 registration date, the domain hosts content about design in a format that can fit inside a screen without much scrolling.
Founded by Benjamin Jay Shand, designtel functions as a mid-century design archive with imagery generated / sourced via original material to accompany written texts.
Did you ever register a .tel domain?
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