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The .UK revolution

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Domain Summit Africa 2026
It will only take one major transition from a major UK online force from .co.uk to the far sleeker .uk and the tide will start turning.

Someone will do it just to f with their rivals sooner or later. It only takes after that for .uk to be seen as 'fashionable', and away we go. You can see the scenario, young new CEO turns up, wants to make a name for him or herself and decides to 'freshen things up'.

Any technical advantage to the change? Nope. But that's not how humans think.

I think it's a more isolated scenario. It's literally changing for the simpler version of exactly the same thing. It's simple reductionism. People might trust .co.uk more as things stand but I've still yet to meet anyone who can explain what the actual point of the '.co' is in that tld.

Reg is the same price. Over time, assuming domain names stay relevant there's only gonna be one winner.
 
I don't see the connection between .co and .com. Is there one? I do see that we live in the UK and we don't live in the CO UK.

.fr, .de, .uk it isn't .co.fr, .co.de... is it?
 
Trauiner said:
You're looking for a connection as a domainer, not a user.

Based on the points you made, .co would be better than .com - It's shorter, sleeker, means the same thing (technically it doesn't but it's promoted as if it means company etc.) and the user doesn't know the Columbia connection either.
Click to expand...

You've focused on one point. Its 'sleeker'. The rather more important point is .uk represents well.... the UK. What it should have been in the first place.

Quick mini survey with Joane Bloggs on the street.

Ma'am which domain name do you trust/recognise?
Blahblah.co.uk or Blahblah.uk

JB: Blahblah.co.uk

Ma'am which of these best represents the United Kingdom. .co.uk or .uk?

JB: .uk it's simpler.
 
I didn't think the point was about switching. Didn't nominet release the .uk extension so that *new* people could get the domains they wanted....? That was how they started and what they told us. Of course that turned into 'register uk and make sure people don't steal your domains'.... then that morphed into 'better the registrars register the uk domains on your behalf.' Originally though when nominet were bullsh...*cough*... informing us all it was basically to have different people developing the uks and thus increase the diversity and popularity of the namespace as a whole. Otherwise there would've been no point at all introducing the extension and it would've just seemed like a money making scam for nominet. So where are these new people?
 
I deal a lot in religious domains. In this category the .co.uk ending has always seemed a bit incongruous because the association of business/company with religious content doesn't quite fit, though I concede that at present most punters doing a spontaneous type-in name are likely to use co.uk as the go to. But .uk is much more attractive for, say, Christ.uk rather than Christ.co.uk - admittedly if I could get hold of Christ.co.uk I would get it, but I'd use it as a re-direct to the .uk

I think geo's also lend themselves well to the .uk because it's so short and neat. It just sounds good.

But I guess we're being a wee bit old-fashioned, because these days search etc is more likely to be the access point, rather than the few who 'type in' names on the off chance.

Does google favour .co.uk over .uk in search lists?

In the end, content is king. But I like .uk more and more.
 
RobM said:
Originally though when nominet were bullsh...*cough*... informing us all it was basically to have different people developing the uks and thus increase the diversity and popularity of the namespace as a whole. Otherwise there would've been no point at all introducing the extension and it would've just seemed like a money making scam for nominet. So where are these new people?
Click to expand...

There are a shed load of domains I would like to register but can't, because Fasthosts and 1&1 are 'cybersquatting' them until next June. When Registry and Registrar sort of endorse an action that actively *prevents* other people registering the names, that doesn't sit well with me. Yes, plenty of people 'cybersquat' and I accept that is part of domain culture and business - in one sense we almost do that to some extent - but the mass registration of 100,000s of names last June, on the back of a Registry free reg / open door did seem to me to be, well, the opposite of "releasing the .uk extension so that new people could get the domains they wanted".

Not to mention, it contradicted the policy that had been defined, that gave right of registration for FIVE long years, before release to the public. 100,000s of domains were NOT released to the public, and they were NOT renewed with the domain owners' consent. They were registered by a third party, the registrar, independent of the actual .co.uk owners choice or consent. I just don't see that as congruent with the original intent or declared policy of the registry.
 
I think Nominet were too busy with all their other exciting new projects to give .uk the attention it deserved. So public awareness was fairly limited. Now if someone like GoDaddy, with their massive marketing budget and media campaigns, were to start pushing .uk then things will change. HarrysRolyPolys.uk might be an indicator of GoDaddy's intentions - we'll have to wait and see.
 
A bit late to the show, but as an outsider my vote is with the dot UK.

Any attachment to co.uk is purely sentimental, noting more which will pass with time.

It is an easy choice for an outside organization looking to buy a better presence in the UK market.
 
Glastonbury.co.uk is a local directory website and not the festival which would be much more impressive. They all help ;)
 
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