What would be the added value of having the .uk extention alongside the .co.uk?

[Dr Harnak Rayat]

With all the talk and the current instability in the .uk name space what will be the impact on domain values?

I believe that as soon as the shorter .uk extension is released it will quickly be taken up by the .co.uk holder and run alongside their .co.uk domain. The impact will be that the savvy public will rapidly adopt the shorter .uk domain extension. This will also as a result have the effect of the shorter .uk extension gaining trust in uk publics eyes. As a result in the .uk namespace the pairing of the shorter .uk extension alongside of the .co.uk domain will have a really positive impact on domain values. In addition the effect on the publics search habits will be that the organic search results may prefer the shorter .uk extension for the uk's local searches and more so when the two domains are paired.

I also wonder what will be the impact on the value of major local generic domains such as the following pairings

carinsurance.uk and carinsurance.co.uk
car-insurance.uk and car-insurance.co.uk

 

[julian]

I love your optimistic scenarios, its refreshing.

Don't forget carinsurance.uk will soon also have to compete with: carinsurance.wtf, carinsurance.web, carinsurance.direct ...

 

[Edwin]

I love your optimistic scenarios, its refreshing.

Don't forget carinsurance.uk will soon also have to compete with: carinsurance.wtf, carinsurance.web, carinsurance.direct ...

They're hardly competition. Think Usain Bolt racing against an OAP, with the latter blindfolded and with legs tied together. That's about size of it.

With carinsurance.co.uk (and probably soon-ish carinsurance.uk) all you have to communicate is the "left of the dot" i.e. the "car insurance" part. The built-in familiarity of .co.uk does the heavy lifting for the rest of the domain.

Take a random new GTLD on the other hand. Suddenly, you've got to do 3 things rather than 1:
1) Get people to pay attention to the elements BOTH to the left and to the right of the dot
2) Persuade people that it's actually a real domain name, not a typo or something "weird" they've not come across before
3) Get people to remember both the left side (completely intuitive - it's whatever they think about already on the subject) and the right side (completely UNintuitive)

It will be harder to "brand" carinsurance.whatever in peoples' minds and make it stick than it will be to brand something completely made up but ending in .co.uk (e.g. bluesquirrel.co.uk) - and we all know how hard branding can be!

 

[Dr Harnak Rayat]

Do people really need to be persuaded

I don't think that people need to be persuaded. It will become normal to assume that the by experience that the shorter .uk and .co.uk extension will belong to the same organisation

 

[getmein]

I feel it will simply depend on the domain name.

I agree 100%.

In the case of carinsurance.co.uk - i.e. a top 10 domain, in a hugely competitive vertical I don't think it makes a difference because anyone spending the necessary amount of money to build the business would likely want to own both extensions. It's such a monster domain that I don't think it would be representative of what will happen in the market as a whole. I'm sure there will be some interesting scenarios where ownership of the .uk and .co.uk will get split and we'll see in time what sort of premium the marriage value commands.

For the uk market in general I think it will bring a much needed fillip and perhaps get end users thinking about domains again. But with all the gTLD madness its really difficult to have a good feel for what will happen. My gut feeling is still that over 5 years .uk will transition to being the de facto choice for uk businesses.

 

[julian]

Edwin I'm beginning to think your American - you do get irony don't you..?

They're hardly competition. Think Usain Bolt racing against an OAP, with the latter blindfolded and with legs tied together. That's about size of it.

 

[websaway]

The new tld's will strengthen the .com as the global king and do the same for .uk in the uk. Happier Days!

 

[Edwin]

Edwin I'm beginning to think your American - you do get irony don't you..?

That's like steely and tinny, isn't it? (channelling my inner Pratchett)

 

[philiporchard]

Welcome to the forum.

Just checked back through my emails - seems it was back in 2008 when I first got in touch re. these domains! Great domains and will look great on .uk

 

[Dr Harnak Rayat]

I am inclined to agree.

Welcome to the forum.

Just checked back through my emails - seems it was back in 2008 when I first got in touch re. these domains! Great domains and will look great on .uk

Yes I am rather inclined to agree. Many thank for the welcome. Much appreciated.