The .UK revolution

[Breakline]

You think if diving.co.uk had been developed it would appear below diving123.co.uk? Um...ok. Notice google didn't suggest *other* undeveloped names.

If the content is higher quality, guaranteed.

 

[RobM]

Lol so what's your point? You would rather develop a poor name with no sense of authority, trust, or prestige in the market place to save £450?
If I was going to monetize a site about diving (and there are *many* ways) I would rather do it on diving.uk or diving.co.uk than diving123.uk or diving123.co.uk. However if I *couldn't* get the category killer I'd go for a weaker alternative - as we all do almost daily. But basically £450 has got the *best* diving domain available in the uk market space. If I wasn't auctioning it I would have bid on it. Easy to make money from and instills a sense of importance to potential clients. Easy to remember, does what it says on the tin, and people not in the industry will take you more seriously when it comes to getting advertising, affiliates, etc. Not to mention that, sadly, search engines *do* give higher priority to generic domains with similar content to weaker domains.

 

[Ben Thomas]

Sure is hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it's harder to win an argument with a fool.

 

[dougs]

No one bought .co.uk's in the 90's..........diving.uk downside risk £450...upside potential lots. The credibility alone is easily worth it.

Owning what some people "think" is an industry leader domain opens many doors....easy to get meetings, deals etc etc etc, easy to recruit people, etc etc etc. Doug who once owned and developed www.carrentals.co.uk ( when I started I could not afford carhire.co.uk ), discountvouchers.co.uk, fly.co.uk etc etc etc.

Owning a name that some people think is the wow name is a brand positioning dream

 

[dee]

If the content is higher quality, guaranteed.

Possibly... but if you if really didnt get the idea of owning a fantastic domain would you be here ? Its a forum for domainers so you obviously see the value in a decent domain or you be buying niche123.co.uk for everything you did , sticking quality content on it and be rockin it.

 

[mdb]

Coming at this more from an end user who's dabbled here and there in selling.

Do you not think it's like most commodities, a lot will depend on perception? I expect enough people over time will reg enough .uk's, enough for it to muddy the waters. Why, because most decent .co.uk's are already gone. It's interesting - the amount of .uk domains I looked at where the .co.uk equivalent was being held by a domainer. Some of these domains go back 10+ years.

I love a great domain just like you guys, but are the general public convinced enough to fork out hundreds if not thousands on a chance? Obviously there are enough to keep the model alive.

I expect there will be enough that will opt for the £6 .uk to make it work over the long term. When a few big boys move to .uk, like was mentioned with PokerStars, once you start seeing .uk domains slapped on the side of the lorries up and down the motorways, I think it's got a good chance to exist beside .co.uk

Ironically i think the biggest killer of .uk is if domainers hold loads in their portfolios and hold out for big money.

As mentioned, and I agree, the Google juice in a domain is fractional. Content rules, but I do think there's a certain about of panache seeing a good domain in the serps, and that's from watching non-techies search and click. I also think that spreads over when you're at a conference and you're telling someone your web address or see it on a business card. Perception.

 

[mdb]

Possibly... but if you if really didnt get the idea of owning a fantastic domain would you be here ? Its a forum for domainers so you obviously see the value in a decent domain or you be buying niche123.co.uk for everything you did , sticking quality content on it and be rockin it.

There's definitely value in a decent domain, I don't think anyone on here would argue that. But the technical value has obviously waned in favour of content. In my view, and it's what I've just said, the value is more of an emotional / psychological one. In short, in business, a great domain is always going to impress, irrespective of how it ranks.

"I don't think anyone on here would argue that." Okay, maybe some

 

[dee]

There's definitely value in a decent domain, I don't think anyone on here would argue that. But the technical value has obviously waned in favour of content. In my view, and it's what I've just said, the value is more of emotional / psychological one. In short, in business, a great domain is always going to impress, irrespective of how it ranks.

Agreed. I think you said it perfectly in your post. Perception .

 

[Kaleido]

I'm hoping that over time companies will have a change of heart, because .UK seems nicer to me. It would have to be en masse for it to work though and I'm trying to find companies that have actually done it... I've compiled a list at https://switchedto.uk

Nice idea. You could add DomainLore.uk to the list, but that might be cheating Just imagine the uproar if Acorn switched to .uk

Are you going to keep it to sites that have purely switched, or new sites that have launched on the .uk?

 

[dougs]

I would suspect many sme type companies over the years have come to the conclusion they cannot own a nice .co.uk so have settled for junk names. The release of the uk's allows those people to buy a better quality name, so over time they will start using them. The established sites who had nice premium .co.uk names can have co.uk or .uk and so will go with the flow. Thus for a period of time we will have co.uk/uk's coexisting, but then the .uk will dominate....simply no reason to have the ".co" extra characters. As a company we are already planning the migrations and just redirecting our .co.uk's to the .uk

 

[mdb]

I would suspect many sme type companies over the years have come to the conclusion they cannot own a nice .co.uk so have settled for junk names. The release of the uk's allows those people to buy a better quality name, so over time they will start using them. The established sites who had nice premium .co.uk names can have co.uk or .uk and so will go with the flow. Thus for a period of time we will have co.uk/uk's coexisting, but then the .uk will dominate....simply no reason to have the ".co" extra characters. As a company we are already planning the migrations and just redirecting our .co.uk's to the .uk

Think it's too soon to say if they'll dominate, but I'm confident they'll coexist.

It doesn't surprise me that the tech savvies, especially domainers, will be migrating to .uk. I think Domainlore was the first site I saw using .uk.

Can you imagine if Amazon shifted over

 

[Jiblob]

Nice idea. You could add DomainLore.uk to the list, but that might be cheating Just imagine the uproar if Acorn switched to.uk

Are you going to keep it to sites that have purely switched, or new sites that have launched on the .uk?

Thank you for the positivity. Not much of a list now but it may grow. I'll likely list both to be honest. I might also set up a checker. It's simple right now but it could become interesting.

I did think that domainlore was a bit of a cheat which is why I haven't included it, but in truth it's just as valid as any other platform even if they do concentrate on uk names. They could just as easily have chosen .co.uk

 

[looks]

Personally I love the .UK, we are going to be moving our business sites over from the .co.uk. It may take time but I think .UK will come out on top. This is from someone who owns 3

 

[Sean]

As a company we are already planning the migrations and just redirecting our .co.uk's to the .uk

I'd run for cover if I was you Doug, Dave's lurking somewhere

Thank you for the positivity. Not much of a list now but it may grow. I'll likely list both to be honest. I might also set up a checker. It's simple right now but it could become interesting.

I did think that domainlore was a bit of a cheat which is why I haven't included it, but in truth it's just as valid as any other platform even if they do concentrate on uk names. They could just as easily have chosen .co.uk

Visit leasecar.co.uk

 

[Jiblob]

I'd run for cover if I was you Doug, Dave's lurking somewhere


Visit leasecar.co.uk

Awesome, that's one for the list! I typed "car leasing" into Google and it was the 5th result.

 

[dee]

Visit leasecar.co.uk

why woulnt that just be a forward? i would have thought thats traffic suicide

 

[Sean]

why woulnt that just be a forward? i would have thought thats traffic suicide

I wonder if the .co.uk has a penalty because I can't think of any other reason they wouldn't

 

[Jiblob]

Indeed it should really be a permenant redirect, for Google's sake.

 

[Kaleido]

Awesome, that's one for the list! I typed "car leasing" into Google and it was the 5th result.

You can also add...

Chatiw.uk
GreenBonds.uk
Rokers.uk

GreenBonds.uk didn't switch and just launched on the .uk, but I don't know about the other two.

 

[Domaintial]

I told a guy I know about a first name domain that is currently on auction ([name].uk), and let me tell you he could easily afford it but he told me "why would I want that rubbish? If it was .co.uk sure".

Wow... whereas we've seen the opposite. Lots of non-domainer / non-technical clients asking if we can secure their surname.uk as they've not been able to get anything decent for their own personal email forever, and they want it for personal branding professionalism.

I guess I'm lucky in that I secured the .com and many others of my firstname and surname many years ago