What happened 2 .me

Introduction to DNS

or domain name system. I`m quite sure that you would be delighted to type something like 216.58.201.78 in your browser’s address bar to open google.com. Well, without DNS you would need to. DNS is a service that translates names to IP addresses and vice versa. So, in fact, when you type a website address (for example tehcestigate.com) in your browser and hit Enter, your computer goes to another computer on the Internet, called DNS server and asks a question like: do you know what is the IP address of the techestigate.com? DNS server then searches its internal record list and if it finds the record it answers. If the record is not found internally the same question will be passed to another DNS server on a higher level. Having an answer DNS server passes it to your computer. The answer can be either the IP address of the domain or statement that the domain does not exist. In the first case, your browser will try to open the website, and in a second you will get a message like “This site can’t be reached” from your browser. This is a simplified explanation of DNS. Now to the subject of this article, ME TLD or Top Level Domain.

Some legislative facts about .ME

• Montenegro was assigned the ISO 3166-1 two-letter code “ME”, which was allocated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in September 2006[1] (most other possible abbreviations of Montenegro (MO, MN, MT, MG and MR) and its Montenegrin name Crna Gora (CG) having already been taken). Source: Wikipedia article.
• In September 2007, ICANN delegated the .me domain to the Government of Montenegro,[2] with the former .yu domain to be operated temporarily by the .rs domain registry (Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names) until its eventual abolition on or before 30 September 2009.
• The delegation of root name servers was approved by IANA,[3] establishing .me. The .me domain extension became active on 24 September 2007 and a “Public Invitation for selection of the Agent for domain registration under the national Internet domain of Montenegro” was posted on 14 November. doMEn d.o.o.—a Montenegro-based joint venture whose partners are Afilias, GoDaddy.com, and ME-net d.o.o.—was selected as the new registry operator.

Conclusion no.1

.me is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Montenegro.

Some reality facts

• The .me country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) is an extension that represents both Montenegro and you. (Godaddy definition that can be seen here.)
• .ME is about YOU. You are one step away from owning the domain name of your dreams. Personalize your blog, business or website. The possibilities are endless. Get creative! (http://domain.me, http://domen.me (local language) definition that can be seen here.)
• In March 2016, .me surpassed one million domain name registrations.
• Most registered domain names have nothing to do with Montenegro as a country. Registrations have been done mostly due to the meaning of “me” in English.
• More than 99% registrations of .me domains happened thru registrars outside of Montenegro.
• Most people don’t even know that .me stands for Montenegro.
• Big brands like  WordPress, Facebook, and PayPal adopted the extension.
• Montenegro gained well recognized digital product with global demand and monetized it greatly. In 2015. revenue from .me domain reached around 2 % of total export of Montenegro.

Conclusion no.2

Money always finds the way. The .me domain is definitely being advertised as a personalized domain. Montenegro may be selling its digital heritage but in its own unique way, this actually turned into the win-win situation for everyone. New, short and fun domain extension is out there, registrars are making money. Montenegro is making money. Just keep in mind that this is not the only case of using the language coincidence to monetize domain extensions. The Pacific Ocen island of Tuvalu is another example. Their .tv extension is advertised as domain names for broadcast media. There is also the island kingdom of Tonga with a .to extension used like where.to or go.to.

Some interesting information regarding domain names and extensions

• IANA is the organization that takes care of the domain names. List of the top level domain names (those are the extensions with only one . before the name . like .com, .net, .org ) can be found at this link.
• mydomain.com is the domain name and in that name .com is the domain extension
• Around 100.000 domain names are registered every day.
• Domain name registration was free before. In 1995 Network Solutions got the permit to start charging for domain names.
• There are no more free three character domains.
• The most expensive domain name publicly reported was insurance.com, it went for 35.6 million US$.
• Symbolics.com is the first domain ever registered. Date of registration was March 15. 1985.

Fun with domain names 🙂

At the end as Shaldon would say: “Fun with flags.”
Here is the list of the most stupid domains ever:

• swissbit.ch The name of the company is Swissbit, but tld is a bitCH here 🙂 it is turned off now, and the company changed the domain name to swissbit.com.
• blackhatebook.com It’s not a Ku Klux Klan manifest, it is a Black Hat eBook. People did not want to read it. The new domain is blackhatseo.com.
• ladrape.com It has to something with bedspreads but the name is definitely not encouraging.
• hollandshitfestival.nl Judging by the name, the festival is terminated. Shit happens.
• whorepresents.com Site changed, but still, exists. Follow the link if you want someone to present you…
• therapistfinder.com In need of TheRapist? Use this site to find one.
• lesbocages.com Again, the problem with a different meaning in different languages. It looks like even owner managed to figure it out.
• budget.co.ck Budget car rentals on the Cook Islands. The company was getting weird contact messages over the website for unknown reasons. The owner closed it and after reported mental problems disappeared in central Bosnia.
• speedofart.com This time it is a smelly example.
• penisland.net, In fact, it is a Pen Island, but you never know…
• tits.ac.in Institute of Technology & Sciences (also great experts on the subject of TITS)
• dicksondata.com  Want to have something on your data? Try Dickson Data.
• powergenitalia.com Use your imagination or simply find about Power Generators in Italia. For now, it waits some better times. Parked it is as Yoda would say.

I hope that this article was interesting and that it provided some fun and useful information. At least next time when you see some of the mentioned domains, you will know what they really stand for and even how do the flags of the originating countries look like.

Thank you for reading.