The headline on the press release from 3Com for the e-business guide it launched recently with the Small Firms Association was perhaps a bit too prescient. "Warning," it reads, "Simply putting dot.com after your company name is no guarantee of success." Er, we should think not.

Indeed, in the wake of dot.bombs Boo.com and NetImperative.com and jittery investors on both sides of the Atlantic, the Margin can safely say that a dot.com after your company is definitely no guarantee of success.