Who the hell thought 5 years was a good idea...

[invincible]

I think they knew it was a bad idea so the 5 years was just to help prolong it before a lot of co.uk's and uk's get split and it's a mess.

It was an initial idea that morphed several times into an ultimate idea which attempted to satisfy and appease many self-interested parties while still attempting to offer something that seemed aesthetically more attractive/more modern/more relevant. I'll repeat, commercially it would have made sense to make the whole lot available at midnight FCFS or via an auction. Luckily for some, such as portfolio holders and perhaps small businesses, that was not how it ended up launching.

Is there really any point revisiting this because it can't be changed now?

 

[Sound]

Is there really any point revisiting this because it can't be changed now?

I agree that we should not keep revisiting this.
But do you think Nominet thought that this is what would happen to the uk domain space after their decision..

 

[invincible]

I agree that we should not keep revisiting this.
But do you think Nominet thought that this is what would happen to the uk domain space after their decision..

I've no idea what they felt the take up would be after finally deciding on the five year ROFR. How could they have predicted how it would have panned out? Maybe they already felt pushed into a corner by so many to offer a five year ROFR regardless of anything else.

 

[anthony]

...Maybe they already felt pushed into a corner....

I think we all know they painted themselves into a corner!

 

[Edwin]

But do you think Nominet thought that this is what would happen to the uk domain space after their decision..

No.

I believe that if Nominet had realised just how poorly .uk would have been taken up, they would have rethought the launch (either the whole idea, or the methodology).

But even though tomorrow is Back to the Future day, nobody's got a time machine. So we are where we are, and Nominet - and everyone else - has to make the best of the situation as it is now.

 

[cm1975]

I can see Nominet pushing it in the last 6-12 months of the 5 year period. What is the benefit of pushing it now? The .uk is still reserved, so to do a large marketing campaign now could result in them being accused of doing it for the money. ie. If you pushed it now, then the registrant would have to pay twice to keep both, when they don't need to.

At least, that's what I'm hoping, as otherwise it's been a waste of time!

 

[Edwin]

What is the benefit of pushing it now? The .uk is still reserved, so to do a large marketing campaign now could result in them being accused of doing it for the money. ie. If you pushed it now, then the registrant would have to pay twice to keep both, when they don't need to.

It's going to take far more than one campaign - especially the way Nominet executes on them - to build solid traction in .uk, so I hope they do one now and one in a few months and again and again until the penny finally drops in the wider market.

 

[cm1975]

It's going to take far more than one campaign - especially the way Nominet executes on them - to build solid traction in .uk, so I hope they do one now and one in a few months and again and again until the penny finally drops in the wider market.

I can appreciate people being made aware of it, but many companies will just say comeback and tell me when I need to do something about it.

At the moment, they are thinking about the new registrations where they want people to pick up the .uk & .co.uk pairing. Hence the free .uk campaign with registrars.

 

[Skinner]

You are thinking about it like a normal person.

Get your bonus pay head on, and think push it now, get 100,000 regs at £4 a pop for the next 3-4 years, push it again get another 100,000 regs for 2-3 yrs, or make nothing for 3 years ?

I can see Nominet pushing it in the last 6-12 months of the 5 year period. What is the benefit of pushing it now?

 

[willbon]

Just to reference previous comments on 'who will be crowned king'...

It seems to me that as domainers we've discussed this and have no answer after the years of discussion.... because... as we can see... if you want to create a solid brand on the domain... you need both.

So to maintain both is the way forward.... but to maintain both it's more expensive than maintaining the global tld .com ..

Perhaps Nominet should have thought about this too....

 

[Skinner]

At this moment in time I agree Willbon, but sooner or later a natural order will settle.

.com
.co.uk
.org.uk
.me.uk

Were the former, and you used to try to secure .co.uk and .org.uk but never used the .org.uk if you owned both but could settle if no .co.uk.

This will happen again, people will place a premium on one and the other becomes a nice to have and second choice before .org.uk.

At the moment this choice can't be made, so until 2019 you need both.

 

[pugdomains]

No.

I believe that if Nominet had realised just how poorly .uk would have been taken up, they would have rethought the launch (either the whole idea, or the methodology).

But even though tomorrow is Back to the Future day, nobody's got a time machine. So we are where we are, and Nominet - and everyone else - has to make the best of the situation as it is now.

What better way of marketing is there then people seeing the .uk extension actually being used as web addresses on the side of vans or on shop fascias or in facebook links, and what better way of achieving that than to give them all away for free, with thousands of them entering the pool for general registration one year later for people to actually register and then use.

Just like you may see somebody wearing a swish pair of £100 nike trainers and decide that you would like some of those yourself for the gym. Just like you see somebody driving the latest shiny hybrid car whilst filling your car with £70 worth of petrol for the fourth time that month and wish that it was yours....

 

[monaghan]

I don't think the cost is what's holding people back, I think it is confusion. As a small businessman if I've already got mydomain.co.uk on my business card / van / shop why would I want mydomain.uk as well? There's just no good reason for the average domain owner to have another domain that's almost the same as what they've got.

When someone buys a domain for their business they are likely to go with what they see others using, so .co.uk or .com will still be the popular choice.

5 years for a migration from .co.uk to .uk is fair, but Nominet have always insisted that .uk is a separate domain and not a replacement for .co.uk

The main issue is that the majority of the Internet is still a mystery to most, yes they can google and find their favourite shop / facebook friend / porn but the average punter wouldn't know a domain if you slapped them in the face with it, take this level of skill and combine it with a wordpress template tweaker (average cheap web designer!) and you can see why the uptake of .uk is so slow. Just look at how many hotmail / gmail / ntlworld / other generic email addresses you still see on small business vans to see how little the average punters understand how it all works.

It would be interesting to know how many sites there are with just the .uk and no .co.uk / .com and so on.

I suspect towards the end of the 5 year window there may be a lot of activity and those with catch systems will be tweaking to grab the valuable .uk's that have not been collected.

 

[sdsinc]

They could even have just automatically given every .co.uk owner the .uk for free, and told them that they need to renew in a year else it will drop. Job done.

Yes, they could have, but I think a lot of those .uk would have been dropped anyway.
I guess Nominet are waiting for .uk to become 'mainstream'. Then businesses will (presumably) be more receptive to the idea of at least securing their .uk.

Obviously this is some kind of catch 22 situation, because all the good keywords in .uk are effectively frozen (reserved) until they are claimed. This situation holds back the growth of .uk because the pool of *available* names is limited.

New Zealand recently opened up .nz at the second level, but domain holders only had 6 months to exercise their rights. As expected many domains were not claimed and snagged by savvy people. It could be speculators like us, but competitors too and this is why businesses must stay on top of things

Personally I think 5 years is better than one, because awareness will be slow.

PS: if you look at the stats .uk has made good progress this year.