.uk extensions

[disruptive]

I have a quite a few explicit .uk and well as their .co.uk domains. Basically I think a few years back LCN was trying to get people to secure them and offered them for free. Never wanting to miss a bargain, I did a few and fat fingered the rest. Now I have two domains, say xyz.co.uk and xyz.uk and I really want to find a way to consolidate the two and basically save on the registration fees.

Any suggestions for how best to manage and the think I'm finding, is that basically no-one uses .uk at all. IMHO. Should I just delete the .uk and say "f^^% it", no use at all and save the money. Looking for thoughts and options here.

 

[ian]

.uk certainly haven't gained any traction, and Nominet don't appear that interested in promoting it (they've made a tidy sum from it). The cut off for registration is next June, so perhaps marketing will be ramped up before then and we may see adoption, but I'm doubtful. For now however, it might be worth hanging on for a year or two just in case. Come next June, I'm certain we'll all be registering as many .uk's as possible (then wondering a year later why we bothered).

 

[disruptive]

I am simply unsure whether to let them all go (the .uk) extension because I have a hunch they are all totally and utterly useless. I just reckon I'm paying for zip. I've not had a single bit of interest and have been selling .co.uk's and no-one is interested, Not even just re-assurance that they get the rights to the .uk.

 

[RobM]

Mission accomplished for nominet and their friends. Registrars will be even happier come June especially where they have registered domains without permission for their clients and set them to autorenew. What a massive benefit to registrants this whole process has been. No wonder people are moving away from the uk namespace entirely it seems. Personally I will no longer be developing on any uk domains - I'd rather spend more (or probably not as I won't need two extensions) buying a .com for any projects.

 

[Skinner]

I'm dropping many .UKs, and more often than not, even chasing the .uk. Plutonium Balloon comes to mind.

 

[dee]

If anyone is dropping decent uk one worders send me a list for reg fee refunds ....i still hold out a bit of hope. Naively maybe.

 

[Sean]

I'm a huge fan of .uk, it's the new premier TLD for the namespace and I'd take it over the .co.uk every time. I do think the decision to release it was a poor one but release it they did and it's here to stay, so I'm happy to embrace it. The majority consume the internet via Google these days and a .uk will rank just as well as a .co.uk so why would you go with it's longer, mouthy sibling.

As I say, the decision to release it was poor and I think next year will see a lot of anger and confusion as companies and individuals waste/lose their rights to the .uk but there is still a solution to the problem which is to cancel the general release and give indefinite rights to the holder of the .co.uk

It means Nominet save face, those who've invested in .uk get to keep that investment and anyone that buys a domain gets a choice of which extension to develop.

 

[RobM]

The issue is that people already with a co.uk really have no choice but to buy the uk to stop other people buying it and splitting/confusing their brand.
Why would anybody buy a .uk where they can't get the co.uk? - that would be mad because any development you do is guaranteed to lose some of your hard work to the co.uk. That means you end up buying both or finding something else.
Also is there any proof that co.uk will rank as well as .uk? Google favours older establish names and extensions and we haven't seen that in the past with au/com.au, in/.co.in etc.
All nominet have really done is force people to either pay their extortion fee or move away to .com.

 

[Sean]

Rob, I don't disagree with much of what you say but .uk is here and we have to deal with it and given a choice, I will take it over the .co.uk every time. Where I do worry is having [email protected] misheard as [email protected] so like you say, in an ideal World I'd develop the .uk but want the .co.uk to cover myself.

I have no scientific proof that .uk ranks better or worse than .co.uk but I am seeing more and more .uk turning up on page one of Google which means ranking it is possible despite it's lack of age

Like I said above, releasing .uk was a poor decision and I think pressure should be put on Nominet to cancel the general release and give indefinite rights to the holder of the .co.uk because a general release risks public outcry which could undermine confidence in the whole of .uk

 

[disruptive]

I do think there is tremendous confusion these days with the UK space and its led to a watering down of the .uk brand. I thought .me was one step too far! History has shown we simply do not need it. I like Sean's idea if the .uk comes along with the co.uk for free (or VV)...if such a thing is possible.

 

[RobM]

The funny thing is a lot of us pleaded with nominet to introduce .uk back in about 2003ish. Of course then they weren't about lining their own pockets with kickbacks and bribes and the top registrars weren't intertwined with them (sharing board members, relatives etc) so they said it wasn't of any benefit or interest for the members (which it still isn't). A bit different lol.

 

[JMI]

I have had 2 requests for the .uk alone and both parties did not want to pay for the .co.uk. Both start-ups and the issue was they had done their whole branding and design concepts based on domain.uk which is just much cleaner and funkier. One was an LLL other a short word.

Over 30 like .co.uk under more prepared to adopt .uk

 

[RobM]

Well hope they have the co.uk or can afford to lose bleed traffic. I like the uk only *if* I have the co.uk. Otherwise why give someone else traffic as you become more successful? Being young doesn't necessarily alter reality - they *will* lose visitors who will probably find them eventually providing the co.uk doesn't also provide what they want (and it wouldn't take most long to realise how to monetise someone else's work). As an aside I set up an email on a .uk and EVERY single person I have given it to has said 'you mean .co.uk?'. I correct them but have a forwarder on the co.uk and they still email there lol. So why wait decades for that mentality to change? Either get both or get another extension. Serious business will not want to lose a cent to be 'funkier'. However if nominet's intention was to turn this into a mickey mouse extension.... job done.

 

[Sean]

Do you think we're sometimes guilty of thinking too big or over analysing? Not every business wants to be Proctor & Gamble or Facebook. To many, a domain is just a small part of their business rather than the centre of it.

I find it surprising how many small business owners aren't carrying a business card when you ask for one. It doesn't matter what your domain is if you're not ready to promote it.

 

[Nigel]

I think Nominet know they have damaged the .co.uk brand - but the effect to them is minor and there are still many years of being able to milk this cash cow whilst they're busy building their new technology business. It's quite clear from their site that cyber security, R&D projects, and other registry services including ntlds are just as important to them as .co.uk.

It seems that .co.uk is still king for uk business - but that could change over time. I wouldn't want to invest a lot in a .co.uk site without owning the .uk. I still think it is worth picking up a nice .uk on its own as it must have some value as .uk becomes more widely known about. There are opportunities in the market but seems that it has turned into a numbers game with a lot of churning going on. Maybe values are something like:

.co.uk and .uk held = 100%
.co.uk held = 50%
.uk held = 25%

so currently a very nice one worder might be worth £10k if you hold both .co.uk and .uk
£5k if you only hold .co.uk
£2.5k if you only hold .uk
these figures are only off the top of my head, and domain market is fairly volatile, with no situation being identical, but would be interested to hear other acorn member's views on this.

 

[JMI]

@RobM yes bleed they will!

It's interesting, they have a very singular mindset and vision of what they want the "brand" to be. You could say only wanting domain.uk shows a general naivety. They just don't care!

 

[martin-s]

The fact that we've needed a hostname alias function which converts common typos in email addresses into legit hostnames proves that domain extension confusion and lazy or distracted hostname typos are a problem.

Public recognition of new domain extensions is very poor and people absolutely will get email addresses wrong. I would never risk building a brand without the .co.uk and .uk pair (now that we have to have it). Ideally I'd want the .com too.

People's brains are hardwired to hear ".co.uk" whatever you're actually saying to them. I have a personal .me.uk email address I use occasionally and people are invariably confused by it.

 

[Sean]

The fact that we've needed a hostname alias function which converts common typos in email addresses into legit hostnames proves that domain extension confusion and lazy or distracted hostname typos are a problem.

Public recognition of new domain extensions is very poor and people absolutely will get email addresses wrong. I would never risk building a brand without the .co.uk and .uk pair (now that we have to have it). Ideally I'd want the .com too.

People's brains are hardwired to hear ".co.uk" whatever you're actually saying to them. I have a personal .me.uk email address I use occasionally and people are invariably confused by it.

At face value, the e-mail argument is a good one but how many people would ask for your e-mail address and rely on memory to recall it rather than write it down?

We're getting our knickers in a twist over something that the majority of none tech couldn't give a stuff about. If you build something worthwhile, people will visit it no matter what the domain is.