.UK Domain Names - Worth Buying?

[EViS]

I have a couple .co.uk (and .com) domain names which I use. I've been getting a fair few reminders from my hosting company as well as Nominet that I *should* buy the equivalent .uk domains? Are these likely to take off and replace .co.uk in time? Or is it just another scheme for nominet to pocket some change?

[snuffy]

My hosting company keeps offering me these ste things as well to go with the .co.uk domains I have. Why on earth would I cough up for then ?

The only thing crappier than a .uk one is a .co one.

[Mr Pointy]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/05/nominet_d...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/06/nominet_u...

[Sixpackpert]

snuffy said:

My hosting company keeps offering me these ste things as well to go with the .co.uk domains I have. Why on earth would I cough up for then ?

The only thing crappier than a .uk one is a .co one.

I agree.

A customer of ours went through a whole rebranding exercise with a .co address. It's the future I was told at the time...

18 months later they rebranded again back to .co.uk.

[snuffy]

The thing with the ".co" is that people will just assume it's an error and conclude it should really be ".co.uk". That's bad enough for websites, for it's a disaster for your email address.

I think my domain name company offered the ".uk" ones for free for a year. Now it's on my list of names to review at £10 a go. So I shall be deselecting that option.

[Derek Smith]

What you don't want is a competing company getting a similar URL to yours and having a redirect on it. For some, it might be worth getting the .uk one.

[HantsRat]

Derek Smith said:

What you don't want is a competing company getting a similar URL to yours and having a redirect on it. For some, it might be worth getting the .uk one.

You can only buy the .uk if you already own the .co.uk so no risk is a rival grabbing it.

[Mr Pointy]

HantsRat said:

Derek Smith said:

What you don't want is a competing company getting a similar URL to yours and having a redirect on it. For some, it might be worth getting the .uk one.

You can only buy the .uk if you already own the .co.uk so no risk is a rival grabbing it.

Are you sure? There was a lockout period but it ends on June 25th. On July 1st they go on open sale but you won't stand a chance of getting any good ones as the members of the Nominet board will scoop them all up.

In fact some are not reserved. I've just checked one of my .co.uk domains & the .uk is described as 'Not Reserved' & could be bought for 99p.

[Gojira]

Mr Pointy said:

HantsRat said:

Derek Smith said:

What you don't want is a competing company getting a similar URL to yours and having a redirect on it. For some, it might be worth getting the .uk one.

You can only buy the .uk if you already own the .co.uk so no risk is a rival grabbing it.

Are you sure? There was a lockout period but it ends on June 25th. On July 1st they go on open sale but you won't stand a chance of getting any good ones as the members of the Nominet board will scoop them all up.

In fact some are not reserved. I've just checked one of my .co.uk domains & the .uk is described as 'Not Reserved' & could be bought for 99p.

The domains that I have for email are both .uk, not .co.uk and I've had them for a couple of years or so, without owning the .co.uk versions.

[V8mate]

Mr Pointy said:

HantsRat said:

Derek Smith said:

What you don't want is a competing company getting a similar URL to yours and having a redirect on it. For some, it might be worth getting the .uk one.

You can only buy the .uk if you already own the .co.uk so no risk is a rival grabbing it.

Are you sure? There was a lockout period but it ends on June 25th. On July 1st they go on open sale but you won't stand a chance of getting any good ones as the members of the Nominet board will scoop them all up.

In fact some are not reserved. I've just checked one of my .co.uk domains & the .uk is described as 'Not Reserved' & could be bought for 99p.

That's right. My registrar(?) has already grabbed the .uk version of my .co.uk

[Derek Smith]

Mr Pointy said:

HantsRat said:

Derek Smith said:

What you don't want is a competing company getting a similar URL to yours and having a redirect on it. For some, it might be worth getting the .uk one.

You can only buy the .uk if you already own the .co.uk so no risk is a rival grabbing it.

Are you sure? There was a lockout period but it ends on June 25th. On July 1st they go on open sale but you won't stand a chance of getting any good ones as the members of the Nominet board will scoop them all up.

In fact some are not reserved. I've just checked one of my .co.uk domains & the .uk is described as 'Not Reserved' & could be bought for 99p.

At the time I was pestered by 123-Reg about how I only had so long to grab the .uk domain. I've only got the one, and use it as the URL of my site. The .co.uk one redirects (forwards) to the .uk one.

[snuffy]

Derek Smith said:

At the time I was pestered by 123-Reg about how I only had so long to grab the .uk domain. I've only got the one, and use it as the URL of my site. The .co.uk one redirects (forwards) to the .uk one.

I use 123-reg and they kept on pushing the .uk version of the ones I have as well.

The thing is now, you can have .almostanything now. It does seem like a money making wheeze to try and force people to register all the options for the domain name they own. So .me, .uk, .co, .co.uk, .info, .net, .club, .online, .cockjockey and so on.

[Derek Smith]

snuffy said:

Derek Smith said:

At the time I was pestered by 123-Reg about how I only had so long to grab the .uk domain. I've only got the one, and use it as the URL of my site. The .co.uk one redirects (forwards) to the .uk one.

I use 123-reg and they kept on pushing the .uk version of the ones I have as well.

The thing is now, you can have .almostanything now. It does seem like a money making wheeze to try and force people to register all the options for the domain name they own. So .me, .uk, .co, .co.uk, .info, .net, .club, .online, .cockjockey and so on.

I agree. I don't like wasting money and gave it some thought. It was only 99p but there were renewals to think of.

My conclusion was that with the .uk suffix it was more compact on YouTube, where I post videos linked to my site. It's quicker to type of course. Despite it being nearly a couple of years now, most come via .co.uk.

[snuffy]

Derek Smith said:

Despite it being nearly a couple of years now, most come via .co.uk.

Yes, I think the .co or .uk ones just cause people to think it must just be a mistake and they assume it must be .co.uk instead.

[dazmanultra]

I think it's worth considering getting the .uk version of your name if only for brand protection.

Generally speaking, if I'm looking to start a new online project, i'll want to secure the following, in order of importance:-

.com
.co.uk
.uk
.co
.net
.org