When it comes to top level domain names, some countries are luckier than others. Take the Pacific Ocean island of Tuvalu, for instance, which offers the attractive .tv for the broadcast media. Or Tonga, whose .to domain has given birth to sites such as go.to and how.to. Perhaps most fortunate of all in the name game is Montenegro.
After separating from Serbia in 2006, the country gained .me – the perfect domain for the social media generation. "From the beginning it was clear that .me would have its share in the market," said Predrag Lesic, executive director of the .me registry in Montenegro.
That share is now huge. Since .me went live in 2008, more than 320,000 names have been registered, making it the fastest selling debut top level domain ever. It is short, personal and popular - with names like youand.me and whatabout.me. It is being used more than anything else as a call-to-action domain, for example notify.me. The domain's popularity is partly down to its versatility across different languages.
Even before the domain's launch, Montenegro's registrars were flooded with requests for names. "There have been three development phases," said Mr Lesic. "In the first period we were receiving applications for the trademark names only. International companies like Microsoft and Samsung rushed to register their .me name. The second phase allowed local people to register an interest in a domain, while the third, go-live phase – which started on 17 July 2008 - opened up the registry to customers worldwide. On the first day of the go-live period, we had 50,000 registrations."
One buyer of the .me domain was Matt Mansell, who purchased willshemarry.me. As it turns out she did marry him – and the site was used as a way of informing guests how to get to the wedding. But, aside from his new wife, the domain name may prove to be Mr Mansell's greatest gain from his wedding. "I've had an awful lot of people who want to buy the idea; I've had people who want to buy the domain. A lot of the .me names are actually selling at online auctions for figures like $10,000-$15,000."
Although it is a very lucrative market, technology commentator Bill Thompson is not convinced with the value attached to a memorable domain name. "I'm a domain name cynic. More and more people just go to their favourite search engine, type in what they're looking for and don't actually look for where it's going. So I just don't think domain names are as important as they were. And I don't think they should be."