why .uk?

[julian]

i've been pondering this question for sometime.. can someone shed some light?

who's idea was it to include the .co

just about every other major country has a simple extension, that any entity can register:

• .fr = france
• .de = germany
• .ru = russia
• .us = united states
• .it = italy

I realise that .uk is exclusive to government organisations etc but again why? - surely thats what .gov.uk could be for

so can someone explain why here in the UK we decided to make life a bit more difficult and include another dot and two chars at the end of the domain - and is it a rule that should be relaxed in the future to allow the registration of .uk domains to anyone?

 

[etro]

JANET (ja.net) are responsible for second level extensions I believe. Before the DNS system had been established, JANET used a name registration scheme (NRS) to define UK academic networks (eg. uk.ac.abdn). uk.co was assigned for commerce at the same time.

When DNS came along, it looks as if the NRS records where simply flipped for convenience.

As for the poll, I don't think the .uk extension should be released. .co.uk is a well established domain and I think it would do more harm than good if top level registration were possible.

 

[paulleahy]

Why would anyone want that it would devalue our .co.uks and only give us something else to spend our money on

 

[mat]

It would of been better in the long run to have just .uk in the first place.

But the .co.uk has built up so much recognition now that it cant be changed.

 

[julian]

It would of been better in the long run to have just .uk in the first place.

But the .co.uk has built up so much recognition now that it cant be changed.

This is true and my main point it really - If we wound back the clock and starting again would it have been better?

Every other country seems to have got it right first time except us... doh

was just thinking what about a .GB :mrgreen: ?

 

[mat]

I think if they ever made something like the .gb, although its shorter it would certainly only be a substitute for .co.uk

I reckon the powerfull and wealthy war lords behind Nominet are going to release and register up all .uk domain names in the year 2010 rendering all our out of date .co.uk's worthless

 

[julian]

hey good point that would be ironic - everyone sat smuggly on their pile of domains for the last 10 years only to become worthless overnight...

don't think it could happen though .co.uk is too embedded..

but just imagine... all the old favourites up for sunrise land grab again... sex.uk,...dating.uk..., cars.uk, fly.uk

I reckon the powerfull and wealthy war lords behind Nominet are going to release and register up all .uk domain names in the year 2010 rendering all our out of date .co.uk's worthless

 

[mat]

I think it would have alot of people on here remortgaging their houses.

Youd have to purchase hundreds and thousands really wouldnt you!

Then 10 years down the line you can say to your kids you got in on the .uk boom before everyone else

 

[lzy]

I know of a country which was offering .com.xx for several years before releasing .xx few years ago and .xx immediately became more popular.

 

[rjs_essex]

I think if they ever made something like the .gb, although its shorter it would certainly only be a substitute for .co.uk

It all started out as .gb

From Wikipedia becasue I can't be bothered to write it out myself:

.gb is a reserved Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. Introduced at the same time as the UK's other top-level domain (.uk), it was never widely used. It is no longer possible to register under this domain.

The rule in the Domain Name System is that a top-level domain for a country is derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 list. Accordingly the correct code for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is GB, and the .gb top-level domain was therefore delegated.

The pre-existing JANET Name Registration Scheme had used "UK" as a country code, so the UK also applied to Jon Postel of IANA for the .uk TLD. This was granted, and all UK domain names are now issued as .uk, rather than .gb.

.gb was used for a number of years, mainly by UK government organisations and commercial e-mail services using X.400-based e-mail infrastructure. This simplified translating between DNS domains and X.400 addresses, which used "GB" as a country code.

With the demise of X.400 e-mail and IANA's general aim of one TLD per country, use of .gb declined; the domain remains in existence, but it is not open to new subdomain registrations.

This is interesting though...

One .gb subdomain still exists in the DNS (as of 2007): dra.hmg.gb, belonging to Her Majesty's Government's former Defence Research Agency.

So its a case of 'been there, done that'... It will never be .gb and it will never be .uk

Rich

 

[GreyWing]

Imagine the DRS's if they ever brought out .uk

If it was nominet administrating it they would have to offer the .co.uk owner the first shot at the .uk name otherwise they'd be sued senseless and countless drs cases would arise.

So ultimately unless it was a straight substitution with both running parallel to each other for a few years whilst .co.uk's were phased out it won't happen.