FYI: Google Keyword tool is misleading...

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

Not seen it discussed in the context of .uk yet (certainly not in the recent threads) but worth noting that Google ignores punctuation.

So if you to the Google keyword tool, and try to look at the "exact" count for "example.uk" what you're really seeing is the number for everyone searching for "example uk" AND "example.uk". It's a quirk.

And since sticking "uk" on the end of a keyphrase is a popular tactic that's often used to force more UK-specific results out of Google, it's impossible to know how many (if any) of the searches making up the total number are for "example.uk"

In other words: don't rely on what Google is saying to draw any conclusions!

 

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

The above also applies to hyphens, btw. Google ignores them in the keyword tool just as much as it does "."

So exacts for "example uk" "example.uk" and "example-uk" are the same because it's the same single total being shown 3 times (the total is made up of a mix of all 3 individual numbers, but you can't see inside it to decide how much each is)