A tweet from executive director Predrag Lesic made us aware that the .ME Registry will have a presence at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt event that will take place May 23-25 in New York. In fact, after checking the event’s website, we found that .ME is one of the product sponsors and their listing displays the following description:

“Whether it is about launching a web start-up, or simply re-branding your online business, .ME domains are ideal for personalization of the user’s online experience. In addition, highly valuable premium names are offered for development through special non-auction allocation procedure.”

Given Predrag’s tweet and the anouncement above, this event would be a great opportunity for those interested in securing one of the .ME Registry’s reserved premium domain names to reach out to them and express their interest.

The .ME Registry announced today that Google has obtained Ro.ME through its premium domain name development program. We wrote previously about this terrific program where interested parties can request for the allocation of reserved domain names from the .ME Registry for the purpose of development. Typically, once submitted, the proposals are reviewed in an approval process; however, in this case, we imagine that a request from Google doesn’t require much deliberation on the part of the registry.

This is exciting news and comes on the heels of the discovery of the recent acquisition of the .ME domain names Plus.me and PlusOne.me by Google that we covered a few weeks ago.

Ro.ME is a music video project conceived by Google Creative Lab and director Chris Milk that demonstrates the capabilities of Google Chrome by utilizing the WebGL library to create stunning 3D visuals within the browser without the user being required to install a plug-in.

We posted earlier that DomainNameWire reported that Google had acquired the domain name Plus.me as well as PlusOne.me. The domain privacy was recently removed which allowed for this discovery. The question is why was the whois privacy lifted, is Google preparing to roll something out on the domain name?

The tech blog Digital Inspiration is speculating that the Plus.me domain name could be the new home for the Google +1 button. Google recently launched this new service that works much like the Facebook Like button.

The proposed use for the Plus.me domain name seems plausible since we’ve already seen WordPress launch Jetpack.me, a new service that allows publishers to easily access and integrate popular plugins for their self-hosted blogs. Could Google be considering something similar for Plus.me whereby they create a convenient address for publishers to obtain and integrate the +1 button code?

The .ME Registry issued a press release highlighting the popularity of the .ME extension among the new wave of social sites.

Read more:
Social Sites Turn To .ME As Perfect Match

The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital did a piece covering viral phenomenon Connect.me. The article cites “a cute and simple domain name” as one of the keys to the recent viral sign-up frenzy.

Read more:
What Connect.me–the Sign-up Page That Got 50K Users in a Day–Actually Does

A couple more .ME websites caught our attention in the past few days.

Corkboard.me lets you share online sticky notes. The Gadget Show, a program on the UK’s Channel 5, recently featured the website.

Read more:
Corkboard.me
Corkboard.me Blog
Lifehacker: Corkboard.me Is a Simple, Shareable Sticky Notes Webapp
The Gadget Show Websites

RSS.me, a new service from Blacknight, recently launched with a limited private beta version.

Read more:
RSS.me
RSS.me on Facebook
RSS.me on Twitter

Some of our past posts about .ME’s emergence as the new social domain:

Recent .ME Domain news continues to show startups and new Web services rapidly embracing the .ME extension

Why isn’t “My Yahoo” on the domain name Yahoo.me?

Personal .ME domain names and social network profile pages are a perfect combination

In the past few weeks, we’ve noticed a growing trend in major new Web services being launched on .ME domains. Here are some of the highlights:

Connect.ME is a stealth startup whose beta invite launch went viral last week. (read more)

Ditto.ME is a new social app that allows you to indicate what you wish to do and in turn your friends can offer recommendations. (read more)

A new service from WordPress was launched at Jetpack.ME. It provides users of the self-hosted CMS package easy access to the features found on WordPress.com. (read more)

EightBit.ME has recently opened up registrations after an invite-only beta period. The service allows you to create an 8-bit old school video game style avatar of yourself. These avatars will eventually interact in a forthcoming social game. (read more)

Attachments.ME, a service we wrote about earlier, received a $500,000 investment from Foundry Group. (read more)

The domain name Truly.ME sold on Sedo in February for $12,000 and already the acquirers have launched an alpha stage version of their new service.

There were some other notable .ME domain name sales recently including Copy.ME which sold on Sedo for $10,000. Just late last year it sold for $1,080 (DN Journal sales report).

In February, the domain name Whisper.ME sold for $17,500 (DN Journal sales report).

Perhaps, these .ME domain names were acquired by two more soon to be launched startups.

Here are just a few of the many other major new Web ventures built on .ME domains:

About.ME
Flavors.ME
Formspring.ME
Join.ME
Star.ME
News.ME

There’s lots of news to report about the .ME domain from the past week. It’s not that we didn’t see it earlier but we were in the process of picking up some nice .ME domain names at what we felt were very reasonable prices. We’d purchased the names and submitted payment but the names had yet to be transferred. We were getting a bit nervous that the sellers might be having second thoughts so there was no need to feed the .ME buzz ourselves and potentially shoot ourselves in the foot. Granted, the odds that they would read this blog any way were pretty slim but why take that chance.

Well, the domain names have finally transferred allowing us to return to our mission which is to bring you all the latest .ME domain news. So, it’s all systems go in hyping the lovable .ME.

Although, writing snarky posts about other extensions like the Joan Rivers TLD, oh I mean .CO, is actually quite fun so we can’t promise that we won’t return to the well with that theme on occasion.

Anyway, here we go.

First, the big .ME news out of DomainFest Global last week was the two big .ME sales being recorded in an otherwise lackluster premium name auction. (see DomainFest auction results)

Love.me and Kiss.me were both successfully auctioned at the event on behalf of the .ME Registry with Love.me going to Michael Berkins, founder of Worldwide Media Inc. (WWMI.com) and editor of TheDomains.com, for $32,000.

Then, the New York Times had a terrific piece on the rise of ccTLDs and their growing acceptance among mainstream Internet businesses and developers. The .ME domain was one of the main ccTLDs on which this article focused. (link to New York Times article)

Then, Mike Sullivan of Sully’s Blog conducted a great interview with Natasa Djukanovic who is the sales and marketing director at the .ME Registry. She really did a good job explaining how the registry has worked hard to position the .ME domain for great success now and into the future. (link to the .ME domain post at Sully’s Blog)

Also, the .ME Registry blog has a piece on Formspring.ME and its status as the most visited .ME with it’s huge traffic placing it in the top six of all social network sites.

Finally, Sedo released it’s 2010 Market Trends Study and it shows that aftermarket .ME domain name sales finished the year strongly with .ME accounting for 6% of all ccTLD sales in Q4 2010 (see page 5 of the study) on the Sedo platform. Sedo held a hugely successful auction of premium .ME domain names for the .ME Registry in November. (link to Sedo study)

Mashable is reporting that domain name investor Kevin Ham has purchased the hot startup ThreeWords.ME that saw a rapid trajectory in popularity as the app went viral. There isn’t any information on the price paid at this time.

Read more: ThreeWords.me Acquired by Domain Name Czar

Go Daddy Launching .ME Scholarship Program

World’s Top Web Hosting Provider to Dole Out $100,000 in College Scholarships

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–For years, Go Daddy has been helping millions of people and businesses develop their own Web presence. Now, the world’s largest Web hosting provider and top domain name registrar is working to develop Go Daddy Scholars by providing college scholarships to deserving individuals.

“When I got back from Vietnam, I was able to go to college on the GI Bill. Without that financial assistance, I probably wouldn’t have made it to college.”

Beginning Jan. 10, students can submit their Go Daddy .ME Scholarship applications online at www.GoDaddy.com/MEscholarship. Go Daddy is giving 10 Go Daddy .ME Scholarships for $10,000 each.

“I believe everyone should have the chance to get a higher education,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “By providing Go Daddy dotME scholarships, we can make a difference for some who might not have been able to afford to go to college.”

Read the full press release:
Go Daddy Launching .ME Scholarship Program

ADI News wrote a feature on the proliferation of web startups built on the .ME domain. They cover the companies Facto.me and ThreeWords.me that we wrote about earlier. There is also mention of a forthcoming startup, Dating.me, that is generating interest. Looks like a .ME wave is forming in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley Now Using ME Domain Names For Branding

Two social apps developed on the .ME domain have taken off in the past week. The most recent is Facto.me which allows you to post interesting facts about yourself to share with friends in your social networks. The other is ThreeWords.me where you can create a profile and request that others in your networks write three words to describe you.

Facto.me

ThreeWords.me

Mediaite article about Facto.me

TechCrunch article about ThreeWords.me