- Impact
- 5,974
Hello all,
On 10th June 2014, Nominet, the registry for the .UK namespace introduced .UK names into the mix. Prior to this, companies and individuals up and down the land were using .CO.UK names without detriment or confusion. They introduced .UK names with a reservation period, where anyone with a .CO.UK domain registration has the right to register their equivalent .UK domain for a period of 5 years (OK, it was a bit more complicated than that, but the main case is .CO.UK can have .UK).
It's now 2019 and the outlook on .UK looks pretty bleak. No one appears to be interested in just .UK, hardly any average Joe even knows about it. Buying a .UK alone without rights to the .CO.UK leads to no end of trouble and for any self respecting business they are a security risk too! When you so much as utter a .UK domain in public (e.g. House.uk) the person on the receiving end of this information will instinctively say "Do you mean .CO.UK?"... no I didn't. It's .UK!
I thought that the introduction of the .UK would be great. I thought it would slimline our domain system and bring us into line with most other countries around the world, where they use the shortest equivalent of their ccTLD. We're just months away from the reservation period coming to an end and I predict a complete mess. Those who aren't savvy enough with .CO.UK names are going to lose their right to .UK and they're going to get instantly snapped up... probably by domainers
.
I think that the intention was that .CO.UK and .UK could live side by side. I don't see it this way, I think it's down right confusing. I also think that it's expensive for no reason. From June this year, every company and individual will have to claim their .UK name, 99% of them with probably use it solely as a redirect to their .CO.UK and pay double on renewal fees for no added benefit to anyone. If people don't switch en masse, then there has been a sum total of ZERO benefit created by introducing it imho.
I wanted to get the community's thoughts on this... in light of the reservation period coming to an end, is it time that the UK decided to switch from .CO.UK to .UK like most other countries around the world? Chuck .CO.UK and leave it to die and embrace .UK, that's my opinion. If it isn't done now whilst most people have access to their .UK equivalent, it will never happen.
Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
On 10th June 2014, Nominet, the registry for the .UK namespace introduced .UK names into the mix. Prior to this, companies and individuals up and down the land were using .CO.UK names without detriment or confusion. They introduced .UK names with a reservation period, where anyone with a .CO.UK domain registration has the right to register their equivalent .UK domain for a period of 5 years (OK, it was a bit more complicated than that, but the main case is .CO.UK can have .UK).
It's now 2019 and the outlook on .UK looks pretty bleak. No one appears to be interested in just .UK, hardly any average Joe even knows about it. Buying a .UK alone without rights to the .CO.UK leads to no end of trouble and for any self respecting business they are a security risk too! When you so much as utter a .UK domain in public (e.g. House.uk) the person on the receiving end of this information will instinctively say "Do you mean .CO.UK?"... no I didn't. It's .UK!
I thought that the introduction of the .UK would be great. I thought it would slimline our domain system and bring us into line with most other countries around the world, where they use the shortest equivalent of their ccTLD. We're just months away from the reservation period coming to an end and I predict a complete mess. Those who aren't savvy enough with .CO.UK names are going to lose their right to .UK and they're going to get instantly snapped up... probably by domainers
.I think that the intention was that .CO.UK and .UK could live side by side. I don't see it this way, I think it's down right confusing. I also think that it's expensive for no reason. From June this year, every company and individual will have to claim their .UK name, 99% of them with probably use it solely as a redirect to their .CO.UK and pay double on renewal fees for no added benefit to anyone. If people don't switch en masse, then there has been a sum total of ZERO benefit created by introducing it imho.
I wanted to get the community's thoughts on this... in light of the reservation period coming to an end, is it time that the UK decided to switch from .CO.UK to .UK like most other countries around the world? Chuck .CO.UK and leave it to die and embrace .UK, that's my opinion. If it isn't done now whilst most people have access to their .UK equivalent, it will never happen.
Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
