.CO.UK - Why not just .UK?

[EbookLover]

I've been wondering for a while now. Why do the Brits choose to use .CO.UK and not just .UK?

Does just .UK even exist?

Thanks

 

[davybuk]

There is .uk but it's reserved for things like police.uk

David

 

[AmD950]

because they don't 2nd level now.

 

[EbookLover]

So basically .UK is sort of like the .ORG and .GOV of the UK where as .CO.UK is like the .COM and all other exts of the UK?

I suppose my same question could be asked of why the USA does not mainly use .US. But then, there is a good reason for that since I think .US was released WAY after .COM. .COM was the first ext released, right?

 

[singx]

Its just like .COM for USA...and .us less popular....well not exactly, but people show a similar reaction when you tell them the site is only .uk they tend to correct u.. its...co.uk

 

[tipsfromthetop]

This has actually been asked on here in the past davy is correct. My company is a Nominet ips tag holder and reseller we register .co.uk etc for companies when they host with us.

For a few years now we have been invited and attended nominet seminars and the same question arises without fail when will the public get to use the .uk extension over the .co.uk. The same answer comes up every time. Never! the .uk is only for official govenment businesses or in the rare occurance corporate UK business which have govenment dealings.

So you are correct in saying the .co.uk is basically the .com for people in the United Kingdom. Even though the survey we put out to all our clients if it was to ever changed came back with the suprise result of most of them staying with the .co.uk becuase they liked the idea of the .co. being (company uk) or (country uk)

Hope this helps, if this extension was to ever change, I would get to hear months before the general public but nothing is being mentioned at all in regards to this yet.

 

[EbookLover]

Thanks, steve! I guess it's just like the USA. We prefer .COM over .US for the most part. Thankfully it isn't .co.us or .com.us, though.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

There are a few exceptions to this rule however:

Like with 2 and 1 letter .com's, although they have tried, they are not able to prise them from the hands of ALL of the owners, so they have had to leave them active.

Some domains of the '.uk' alone extension still remain since the time before the .UK was fully reserved.

- Luke

 

[Kate]

It's not only UK. Every country is responsible for its own TLD (some exceptions) and makes the rules.
Korea has similar rules whereby companies trade under .co.kr, I think it's also the case for Costa Rica (.co.cr) and many others that I won't enumerate.
I also think it's unfortunate but it's true that in the case of .co.uk people have been used to it for a long time.

 

[kev]

There was talk of a new uk extension a few years back for scotland.

.scot.uk

Is that ever coming about as we deserve our own extension!

 

[fonzie_007]

This sounds like another silly British things like not allowing anyone's face to appear on stamps except for royalty.

 

[Dannoth]

I dont know, I would get a .uk if I could...

 

[tm]

I kinda like it. Maby its just because I'm used to it.
www.company.co.uk sounds a lot cleaner and nicer than www.company.uk - possibly even .com.

 

[EbookLover]

I don't think so simply because it looks like a subdomain. I guess you could call it a subextension.

I guess we in America messed it all up. We gobbled up the .COM. Had we only started using .US as our main domain, we too would probably be using .co.us, .org.us, .net.us, etc.

Personally, I like the single extention method better. Much easier on the user and better for marketing in a way. Sort of like how hypen domains are harder to maket then non-hypen domains.

 

[Dannoth]

technically .co.uk should only be used for companies, and .uk for general sites. I hate .me.uk

 

[Shorty]

In my opinion there shouldnt be a .co.uk or .uk. The United Kingdom is not a country.

England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales should all have their own individual extensions.

I do agree that .co.uk is quite pointless though. If any immediate change should be made, it should be shortened to .uk. I'm not familiar with the actual mechanics involved here...is such a change possible?

 

[tm]

i hate xx.uk except for co.uk (and perhaps gov.uk). me.uk is just horrible.

England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales should all have their own individual extensions.

Ireland do, .ie - because they are a seperate from the UK now. But I would love to see a .en come out

 

[Sir Regalot]

There also used to be a .uk.co and quite a few domains were bought. This is what happened to it:

http://www.uk.co

 

[gazzip]

This sounds like another silly British things like not allowing anyone's face to appear on stamps except for royalty.

:lol:

.

 

[kev]

I have lost count at the number of silly uk names now.

.me.uk
.uk.net
.uk.com
.gb.com

the list goes on.

Maybe we will follow the route of the soviet union and divide up. Lets face it, the scots always rule! :imho: