Not a week goes by where I’m not sent portfolios to buy, auctions to promote, conferences to go to. Such is life. What was unusual about today was that I received an email from someone who actually did their homework! As such I thought it was worthy of a post.

luv.me is for sale at Sedo and is currently at 5,600 EURO. That’s quite a lot of $$ love for a .me.

Anyway, what got my attention was the research they sent through. At first I thought the person was a domainer, but then I found out that the domain is currently owned by two partners of Brands-and-Jingles, an advertising firm. Here is a cut down version of what they sent through:

• Date.me went for $70,000
• Love.me went for $32,000
• A three-letter domain is the shortest you can have with .me
• It sounds better as a statement

According to Wikipedia, Luv or LUV may refer to:

• Luv (song), a song by Janet Jackson.
• Luv (television series), a BBC sitcom.
• Luv, a Broadway play and 1967 film.
• The Dutch pop group Luv’
• The Chevrolet LUV, a “light utility vehicle”
• Linux Users of Victoria (http://www.luv.asn.au)
• The New York Stock Exchange symbol for Southwest Airlines
• The IATA airport code of Dumatubin Airport in Langgur, Kai Islands, in the Maluku province of Indonesia
• Large unilamellar vesicle: a type of phospholipid bilayer micelle.
• The L*u*v* color space, a perceptually uniform color space used in computer graphics
• A heart-shaped friendship token used on Bebo that can be giving out daily
• The windward or “upstream” side of a dune; compare “alluvial”
• Lava (Ramayana), a son of Rama in Hindu mythology

What do I think? Its a good name, very brandable, short, sharp and probably going to end up being a dating site. Best of luck with the bidding. Would I buy it? If I was planning to run a dating site, absolutely.

Ok – we got past .mobi, .asia and now its .me! That’s right – the country of Montenegro is cashing in. In case you didn’t know Serbia and Montenegro became new countries, so ICANN rubber stamped the individual country codes .rs and .me and IANA set them up with their nameservers.

The joint venture company for the .ME Registry is called “doMEn, d.o.o.”. What an interesting choice of name! It has partnered with Afilias Limited and GoDaddy.

I can think of quite a few good .me names. For example: email.me, call.me, skype.me, about.me, ####.me, itwasnt.me, not.me. Before you get too excited, the registrar has already reserved a bunch of premium names.

Here is the rollout schedule:

1. May 1 15:00 UTC – May 6 17:00 UTC: Montenegrin Sunrise
2. May 6 17:00 UTC – May 20 17:00 UTC: General Sunrise
3. May 20 17:00 UTC – June 6 15:00 UTC: Quiet Period
4. June 6 15:00 UTC – June 26 17:00 UTC: Land Rush
5. June 26 17:00 UTC – July 17 15:00 UTC: Quiet Period
6. July 17 15:00 UTC: Open Registration

So, if you are a Montenegrin company or citizen, and you own a registered trademark or service mark prior to June 28, 2006, then you can apply for a 2nd level domain name during the Sunrise period. You can view the Sunrise policy here.

If you are not one of the 684,736 Montenegrin citizens, then you will just have to wait. The auction rules can make good bedtime reading.

Here are the third-level .me domains and what they are going to be used for:

.co.me – Corporations
.net.me – Legal providers of Internet services
.org.me – Civil organizations and associations
.edu.me – Educational institutions, such as primary and high schools
.ac.me – Academic and post-secondary organizations
.gov.me – State and Government authorities
.its.me or .priv.me – Personal use

I’m sure there will be a lot of discussion over this new TLD. Just wait for your favorite registrar to start sending you emails! Ohhhh its the next social media, personalized, landrush, extravaganza! Hang on kids, here we go again.