Domain-me.com: One scam or another, front running is gonna get ya’

Written on 22nd May 2008 5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Because of its malicious effect on our beloved web industry, we’ve discussed the practice of domain front running a lot on The Next Web. We have to get rid of it, that’s why we try to raise awareness. For those of you who don’t exactly know what is, Eric Litman from WashingtonVC once gave a good definition in the comments section of this blog:

Front Running: when a registrar purchases a name for themselves that someone either attempted to purchase or researched through that registrars web site.

So when you check the availability of thisdomainserviceisonebigscam.com at a domain company that just loves front running, chances are high they’ll register it for you. Even Network Solutions is has been accused of this practice once.

Yesterday I wrote about the popularity of the new .me domain. And when you think about it, it’s not that weird that these front running types also try to make some dirty money in this new area. Well, my co-editor Patrick has just discovered on of the first signs.

If you do a Google-search for “Register Me Domain“, one of the top results is Domain-me.com, a site that tries to appear as a trustworthy domain name registration service. They even have the dull stock photos thing going on. Yet when you check a domain, any domain, they say that your desired domain has already been taken. Even the thisdomainserviceisonebigscam.me one:

Domain-me.com

Let’s hope Google’s head of the Webspam team Matt Cutts will find this out soon and ban this “Market-Tek Enterprises” company from the search results.

.ME, domain-me.com, front running, matt cutts, spam

5 Comments »

Registering a .me domain is quite an investment

Written on 21st May 2008 13 COMMENTS
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”.

.ME, domain, domain names, Montenegro

13 Comments »

It’s Not You, It’s .Me!

Written on 21st January 2008 5 COMMENTS
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: