Sedo and .ME Registry are joining forces to auction keyword rich .ME domain names, the auction takes place from May 26 until May 31, 2012.

There are 200 domain names available, predominantly keyword and geographic domain names. Examples from the list are computer.me, greencard.me, domainregistration.me, unitedkingdom.me. Unfortunately there are no outstanding ‘call to action’ names present, so the chance of topping the success of meet.me at $450,000, is unlikely.

.ME goes global

ICANN delegated the .ME domain to Montenegro in 2007, and the .ME Registry was elected to operate the extension. Montenegro was assigned the .ME domain as its ccTLD after the country became an independent nation in 2006. The government was quick to recognize the potential of the extension as a generic name and it became widely available in 2008, making the .ME domain available for worldwide registration. Similar to TLDs, the domain names can be geo-targeted by Google, which has a positive impact in terms of searches.

In August 2008, 100,000 .ME domain names were already registered, beating its rivals .ASIA and .MOBI, both launched prior to .ME. By 2010, over 320,000 domain names had been registered.

This is not the first auction held for.ME domain names and Sedo has to date, managed the sale of over 1,000 .ME domain names. Big name companies have jumped on the .ME bandwagon such as Facebook (fb.me), Yahoo! (me.me) and Time Magazine (ti.me), proving the popularity of this extension as a memorable TLD. 

Show .ME the love

Hugely popular in English speaking countries, during the land rush period date.me sold for $70,000, love.me for $32,500 and hug.me for $20,000. This extension has proved a big hit with domain hacks (‘Hack’, implying a trick as opposed to exploitation), i.e. a domain name created by combining domain levels and spelling the full name or title of a name, for instance, del.icio.us and goo.gl.