The Next Web

Registering a .me domain is quite an investment

Written on May 21, 2008 – 12:43 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Only two weeks to go before companies can register a .me name, the domain from the country of Montenegro. As you can imagine, this is quite an attractive domain. It creates some sort of personalized approach, even when it comes to world’s largest companies. Apple for example has registered apple.me, ipod.me, itunes.me, reports Networkworld. Trademark holders had the opportunity to register their domain names before yesterday. Other tech companies that profited from this rule - are amongst others - Microsoft, Skype and Digg.

What struck me, are the high fees of the .me registrations. Whereas a .com domain only costs you $10 a year, a .me domain will take 110 to 200 Euros per year from your budget. And there’s a catch too: the minimum registration period is five years. I wonder whether our sponsors will run for a domain when the costs are that high. Although Wakoopa.me and Fleck.me do sound good. And what about Netlog? Imagine somebody comes up to you and asks: “Tell me all about yourself?!”. A simple reply will be enough: “just Netlog.me”.

I hope you like that post!

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.ME, domain, domain names, Montenegro

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It’s Not You, It’s .Me!

Written on January 21, 2008 – 1:27 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

As of today you can register a whole bunch of new, obscene and funny domain names. Montenegro has launched a Registry Service together with Afilias and GoDaddy to sell .ME domains. Soon you will be able to register any domain name ending in .ME at Nic.me.

Besides the obvious ‘screw.me‘, ‘forget.me‘ and ‘notyoubut.me‘ domains there must be millions of variations you can come up with. We can imagine a whole range of new Web2.0 services launching soon that take advantage of this name. Just as Del.icio.us inspired Script.aculo.us, Blo.gs, Project.ioni.st and Wua.la.

LinkedIn will soon be rebranded ‘connect.me‘ and Google might go for ‘searchfor.me‘. Or not. But do think about your own brand name and consider registering it before someone else does. Unfortunately the register page was still under construction when we tried to register ‘Visit.me‘

Know a really funny .ME name? Let us know in the comments here.

PS: recognize the title? Think you invented it? You are not alone:

.ME, domain, domain extension, Montenegro, nic.me

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