ICANN mulls .tel domain for contact info

Reaching out and touching someone used to be as simple as dialing a string of numbers.

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 -- at home and at work -- and instant messaging handles, perhaps separate ones for the various services, some of which now do voice and video besides text.

Some people even have Web pages -- through their employer or Internet service provider, or perhaps a profile or two on MySpace.

To help people manage all their contact information online, the Internet's key oversight agency is considering a ``.tel'' domain name. If approved, the domain could be available this year.