Say you want to reach an old friend who’s always on the move. Calling her at home using the number listed in the phone book [what a quaint notion!] probably won’t work. But how else can you find the various other ways to reach her — via mobile, or at work, or perhaps e-mail, instant messaging, Skype (EBAY), Facebook, or Twitter addresses?
Enter Telnic, which is aiming to become the Google (GOOG) of online address books in competition with traditional yellow and white pages. The London-based startup has developed technology that lets anyone store the full range of their contact details online and then give chosen people access to it. “It is a bit like an interactive business card on the Web that you can change and give to anyone so they can reach you,” says Justin Hayward, Telnic’s communications director. The service is slated to go live in December.
At first blush, that might not sound like much of a breakthrough. But Telnic’s approach is revolutionary because it’s exploiting a significant new capability in the Internet that has been authorized by governing body ICANN [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers], a private nonprofit group that oversees technical aspects of the Internet’s address system. ICANN has sanctioned a new top-level domain called .tel — similar to .com or .net — that is set aside purely to integrate contact information directly into the heart of the Net.
Exclusive Domain
Telnic, which has so far raised about $35 million in financing, first applied to ICANN to commercialize the .tel domain in 2000. Permission finally came six years later, when ICANN awarded Telnic exclusive use of .tel. In the intervening time, the startup has spent about $15 million on the years of engineering needed to perfect the technology, Hayward says.
Along the way, Telnic has also…