As the country of Montenegro capitalizes on their .me domain country code, business owners should too!

Trademark-holders have until May 20 to register their company and product names under the new .me domain, which is being marketed as a generic top-level domain by the country of Montenegro. Applicants include Apple — which registered apple.me, ipod.me and itunes.me — as well as Microsoft, Skype and Digg.

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I find it hard to believe that companies are just now catching on to what the newest generation of net-life is all about. It’s about me. What I want as a consumer, what I think as an individual and what I feel like participating in. Internet in general has gone from a basic form of data delivery, to a mass information storage and retrieval system, to its’ current incarnation of user controlled communication in just a few decades. So it’s no surprise that somewhere in Montenegro someone figured out how to make millions off this growing internet atmosphere of personalization.

I expect that the recent publicity push will drive millions of businesses and individual users to register their .me addresses. I expect to see everything from do.me to doyoulove.me pop up over the next few months. I think a side-trend of this registration rush will be the amount of dirty words that get registered as a domain name for the sake of the adult industry.

Find out if your .me domain is still available at www.GoDaddy.com

ATA files chapter 11 bankruptcy and vanishes like a thief in the night.

Indiana airline, ATA ( a subsidiary of Global Aero Logistics Inc.) announced this morning that they are closing their doors for good, making this the second bankruptcy in 3 years for the ill-fated company. Flights were canceled without notice. Pilots, attendants, and all other positions were laid off. Passengers are stranded in Hawaii, as well as all over the continental US. of the 10,000 or so daily travelers that use ATA’s airline, all were greeted with the same level of customer service. The ATA counter in Los Angeles was deserted Thursday. It had a sign on it that read, in part, “We regret the inconvenience caused by the sudden shutdown of ATA.”

A sign, with a faceless, nameless apology. Not “I’m terribly sorry you missed the flight to your wedding”, or “It is with deep regret that you will not make it in time for your board meeting”, or even a little “It’s ok, we’ve made arrangements to secure alternative flight options for you”. Just an empty desk and a cold sign. It is said that the near 2,300 employees of the ATA airline weren’t given much more than that either. A blindsiding pink-slip and a kick in the ass out the door, leaving them to find new means to support their families and lifestyles with no warning at all.

In this day of modern business and internet consumers have we gone so far away from interacting with our customers that we have NO moral code when it comes to delivering bad news? Are we no longer afraid that the failure of one venture will inhibit the success of a future venture? Has it become so easy to cut ties, wash our hands and walk away, completely disregarding the wake of despair our disaster left behind as people lose jobs, homes, childcare, the very food off their table? Where is the outrage? Where is the lynch mob? How does a company of this stature pay for the damage they have caused?