Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS), says he expects it to be superseded as new technology emerges that is designed to unite telephone numbers and email addresses to find you wherever you are.

Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS), the protocol used for finding .com or .uk website addresses on the net, says he expects it to be superseded as new technology emerges that is designed to unite telephone numbers and email addresses to find you wherever you are.

The snappily named E.164 protocol, or ENum, maps phone numbers to internet addresses and should make it much easier to contact people, provided you have at least one reliable way of reaching them. When a phone number is entered into a computer, the number is linked to diverse communication services such as a VoIP client like Skype, email, fax, mobile phones or instant messaging programmes, allowing you to contact them instantly. Impressive and mindboggling stuff!