Does .UK enhance value & sound right?

[julian]

Whilst doing my daily swim today I pondered what type of domains might become more valuable with a new .UK extension.

LLL.uk
bradablesingleword.uk
placename.uk
keyword.uk


Of course this probably depends somewhat on public take up and perception of the new extension. If we have some early adopters (bbcdotuk etc) then will be as good as done as they way to go.

I also wondered if anyone else felt that having had .co.uk for so long, the domain sounds and looks a bit strange with just .uk e.g.

ebay.uk | www.ebay.uk | ebay.co.uk

The first example almost looks naked but beautifly succinct all at once, where as with the last classic example there's no doubt it's a url.

 

[ratboy]

I think for those of us who's domain names are our brands it's great.

Less of a mouthful and a very quick way of telling someone you are an online brand. Apart from all the heartache i'm pro .uk for this reason.

 

[inbound]

There are domains it will help, but I doubt you could easily classify them into large groups.

One example, from a thread elsewhere here, is Highway-Code.uk (note I know the hyphen is an issue, but it was just to illustrate the idea with a domain I own). The dropping of the .co part helps this domain as the subject matter is very much a UK thing rather than a company based in the UK.

So a small group could be classed as information sites that have info that applies to the UK e.g.

laws(dot)uk
consumerrights(dot)uk

Pure geos are also helped, but tended to be good anyway (if a big enough place, and we know that most of those are parked by a guy who isn't in a hurry to sell or develop).

 

[monaghan]

I think it sounds just wrong!

.co.uk just rolls off the tongue, however, I have been a regular Internet user since the late 80's and a .co.uk domain owner since the early 90's so I guess I may just be behind the times and will get used to it in time.

I'm guessing (and hoping) it will enhance values and give the market a bit of a boost.

 

[WalkinDude]

Remember when .uk was first proposed almost to a man it was said it was a waste of time and would never compete with .co.uk. Now everyone is saying it's superior which it obviously is.

Helen.co.uk or Helen.uk..... i mean it's a no brainer. It's hard to think of a domain name it won't enhance.

.co.uk is about to die a very slow death imho.

 

[inbound]

It's hard to think of a domain name it won't enhance

Any service generic:

Removal
Plumbing
etc

Anything where people could use the phrase "I'm looking for a XXXXX company"

The .co part is clearly identified with company given the abbreviations use prior to domains being introduced.

 

[WalkinDude]

.co.uk and .uk are and always have been meaningless beyond identifying which country and it's in their vary meaningless that offers them such value.

it's easier to explain with .com. It's actual value lies in it's near universal online awareness. That's it. If it actually had in the minds of users any meaning it's value would decrease by simple virtue of the fact you are then narrowing it's uses. The more meaningless it is in the minds of the global internet family whilst simultaneously being instantly identifiable the more useful it is. More value it has.

So yeah there's folks out there who attach meaning and significance to the .co in 'co.uk' but for the folks that matter and that's the paying public it has no meaning beyond the fact they are reassured its what everyone uses. that's it.

.uk has the same utility with only 50% of the fuss. It's going to win hands down.

 

[websaway]

Any service generic:

Removal
Plumbing
etc

Anything where people could use the phrase "I'm looking for a XXXXX company"

The .co part is clearly identified with company given the abbreviations use prior to domains being introduced.

Do you think that if someone is looking to use a uk company from overseas
they would naturally think xxxxxcompany.uk , particularly in law and building etc. ?

 

[spiderspider]

If we have some early adopters (bbcdotuk etc) then will be as good as done as they way to go.

I know you just gave that as an example, but the BBC are trying to get .BBC from Icann. So it would be news.bbc sport.bbc and so on.

It's hard to think of a domain name it won't enhance.

Ones that are EMDs that already end in UK? One I own, and was looking at earlier is photographyjobsuk. If this didn't have the uk on the end, it would be a stonking domain. But I think photographyjobsuk.uk is a bit to repetitive at the end, and the .co in there breaks it up nicely.

 

[diablo]

Ones that are EMDs that already end in UK? One I own, and was looking at earlier is photographyjobsuk. If this didn't have the uk on the end, it would be a stonking domain. But I think photographyjobsuk.uk is a bit to repetitive at the end, and the .co in there breaks it up nicely.

I'm becoming a real convert of the .uk.

Like you say anything xxxxxuk.uk looks wrong.

Real losers I think will be .co and .uk.com - .co already looks unfinished (in fact I've heard as much from fans at football matches) and .uk.com (which I'm always surprised to see businesses use anyway) will look very wrong when major brands are either .com or .uk.

 

[Rob_F]

I know you just gave that as an example, but the BBC are trying to get .BBC from Icann. So it would be news.bbc sport.bbc and so on.

They might not use it, at least not as their primary domain.

Personally, I think they will switch from bbc.co.uk to bbc.uk

- Rob

 

[inbound]

Do you think that if someone is looking to use a uk company from overseas they would naturally think xxxxxcompany.uk , particularly in law and building etc. ?

No, that's not my point at all. There's far more trade within the UK to capture with a .uk domain than potential overseas queries - I am flabbergasted that you think it's relevant given the context of my previous post.

 

[Edwin]

I think once we've said it/heard it 40 or 50 times, it will sound completely normal.

We may well be surprised how quickly it becomes the "new normal" especially since 100% of .co.uk owners pre 28 October 2013 are protected by the release mechanism.

That's not to say that firms won't wait to defer the rebranding costs (I expect most small businesses won't want or be able to absorb such costs before they absolutely must) but we may see many use the .uk in any situation that involves communicating the domain name as soon as it starts to seem "normal".

I agree that the most "damaged" by the release are the names that currently end in ".uk".

Also worth noting that when you look at Google search suggestions, people often append "uk" to focus the results away from Google's tendency to throw in everything from everywhere. That means that "examplesearch.uk" will be a full exact match for "example search uk".

 

[Edwin]

No, that's not my point at all. There's far more trade within the UK to capture with a .uk domain than potential overseas queries - I am flabbergasted that you think it's relevant given the context of my previous post.

True. Hundreds of billions of pounds of business is done entirely within the UK, and from that perspective .uk is a natural winner.