The telecommunication industry now has a top-level domain of their own, thanks to the introduction of “.tel.” Operated by English tech firm Telnic, the new doamin will make it easier for telecoms, mobile phone companies, and even online Yellow Pages to differentiate themselves from the rest of the web.  Users of the .tel service will also have the ability to store vital information such as phone numbers and email addresses directly into the DNS, thereby eliminating the need for a website altogether. The new domains are available now for a staggering $400. Prices are expected to fall to a more reasonable $150 February 3rd, and to around $20 on March 27th.

Google is taking time out of their busy schedules to help programmers and techs of the female variety. The conference, creatively called “The 2009 Google Workshop for Women Engineers,” is designed to help women find jobs within the tech industry. To qualify, the applicant must be currently enrolled in a tech-related, post-graduate program in the United States or Canada and have a GPA of at least 3.3. Seventy-five students will be chosen for the workshop, which will include technical demonstrations and a tour of the Google campus. The deadline for submitting the application is this Friday.

In other news, it seems as if WordPress is the latest service to contract “upgrade fever.” Unlike the previous updates, WordPress 2.7 is focused more on helping the blogger than the reader. Most of the menus have been shifted, reordered and most importantly, are completely customizable. You can now also start new blog posts without actually leaving the main admin page. As with the previous upgrades, you need to backup your previous posts before installing the new version. Without the backup, all of your work will be a distant memory. A beta release of WordPress 2.7 has already been released. The official update will be available on the morrow.

Elsewhere, Fox Media, in association with mobile video concern RipCode, is bringing their highly popular MySpace Video platform to mobile phones. “Users are increasingly interested in portability,” MySpace communications manager Amy Walgenbach told WebProNews. “Video is the natural next step for us in mobile.” Unlike most mobile video services, MySpace Video is built upon an “on-demand” network, meaning that the video is encoded into the format of your choice as you load it. This technology not only stops redundancy, but saves up on storage space as well. At press time, several big names will be available for download including TMZ, The Onion, and the NHL. MySpace Mobile Video, complete with a “beta” tag, is available now for users worldwide.

And finally, Yahoo has expanded the reach of its Search Assist line of search gadgets to include images as well. Similar to the tool found in the traditional search engine, the Image Search Assist provides the user with a list of search phrases that are related to the root phrase. It also displays a small thumbnail “example” of what the prospective search will turn up, giving the user a clear picture of what lies ahead. Aside from a few fairly annoying bugs, the new tool is more than capable of helping frustrated image wranglers find exactly what they are looking for.