New TLD – Its All About .Me

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.