Some recent articles credit “APP”s for mobile phones and devices as the death of websites, and that may or may not be true. However, if registry behavior is any indication, there may be something to that theory.

If we look at “.UK” for example and its domain name registration and web hosting company, LCN.com they will be offering free .UK domain names as part of its “10th Birthday Countdown Promotion”. This “free” offer is only valid with purchase any other two year domain extension in the same order, but the strategy is clear; get more domains out there.

Then this week, Montenegro has released a news story about how their domain  .ME is ‘proving attractive to businesses’. Central to their strategy is the personal nature of the word “me” which has the same meaning in a host of languages. Not only that, but the extension has a marketing side-effect, that a number of other extensions also possess, which is simply, .me spells a word by itself; like youand.me and whatabout.me, and even notify.me.

Other notable extensions include Tonga, such as go.to and how.to, Italy with fix.it, find.it, Tuvalu, with the obvious .tv, then the “abbreviations” like Cocos Keeling with .cc marketed as “Carbon Copy” or Samoa with .ws for “Web Site” and finally Laos with .la for “Los Angeles”. New uses for some extensions like bit.ly, a hyperlink shortening site, exist in the gray area of the internet since .ly is the extension for Libya, an oft-times sanctioned adversary of the United States. TechnicalLu that is doing business with a sanctioned foreign power for Americans depending on the State Department’s stance at that time.

Moving on, and while it spells nothing and isn’t short for anything, .CN has been a very successful selling domain.  China apparently is done with that success and has stated that no overseas application for .CN will be accepted until further notice from the registry. Very puzzling.

Conversely, .TK or Tokelau announced that they have opened the .TK registry for free domains with full name server support. In the past, Dot TK has provided free domain name registration services but only with its URL forwarding service.

Perhaps coincidence, but with the Nexus one launch recently and itunes store bulging with “app”s, its hard to deny the writing on the wall.

If you have seen the writing on the wall and its negatively about you, Metamend has a dedicated ORM team to assist you in keeping your good name.