April 28, 2008
Dot.me

Big news for all those web developers who annoyed that del.icio.us is already taken, and wants to get a similar cool sounding domain name.

Montenegro, a new country in Europe, is getting its own country-code top-level domain. And it is called ".me".

So now you can get "supersize.me", "anyti.me", "awe.so.me", and "Welco.me". Not to mention more traditional sounding ones like "like.me", "follow.me/home", "adopt.me", "text.me", "call.me", "adore.me" and "you.and.me".

But don't think you can just go out and buy one. There are several land-rush periods:

About 2600 popular domain combinations are reserved for a special auction - so "love.me" is going to get expensive.
People and companies in Montenegro (with trademarks) can pre-register domain names during May 1 to May 6.
International companies can pre-register their own trademarked domain names from May 7 to May 20
The public will get access on June 6, in which time an auction will be held if two or more people want the same domain.
Everyone can buy whatever they want after July 17.

But I suspect that we are going to see a lot of Web 2.0 projects called "something.me" in the near future.

And, I have compiled a list of possible domain names - in case you cannot come up with something yourself.

Note: Of course, I expect to get paid a million dollars if you use any of them :o)