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Over 1 Million .eu Domains and Counting

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the buy-them-up dept.

gavint writes "In the first 12 hours since "Landrush" registration of .eu Domains begun at 11:00 CET, over 1 million have been registered. Predictions of .eu becoming the second biggest domain after .com look like they may become true, with Nominet being responsible for "over four million" .uk domains, the second biggest namespace. The UK initially led the way during Landrush but have since been overtaken by Germany, with over a quarter of all registered domains. Meanwhile many "Sunrise" period applications where businesses are able to protect domains where they hold a prior right remain unprocessed, although these domains cannot be registered yet during Landrush. Over 1,000 registration agents were only allowed one connection each to EURid's servers in order to prevent problems and ensure fairness."

137 comments

  1. Hmm by Poromenos1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    How do you pronounce "eu"? If it's how I think it is, "fuck.eu" would be a very nice domain to have.

    --
    Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
    1. Re:Hmm by joe+155 · · Score: 4, Funny

      If you like that you'll love being able to register ".co.ck"... I always found that one funny, not exactly shure which country it is though

      --
      *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
    2. Re:Hmm by redalien · · Score: 1

      I think most people are pronouncing it .eu if they're into domain hacks, eg fuck.eu, screw.eu, sacrebl.eu, and so on, but in the UK at least I see it becoming E-U.

    3. Re:Hmm by sxtxixtxcxh · · Score: 0

      i wouldn't be surpised if that was the first one to go :P

      you can check for yourself: http://www2.whois.eu/whois/GetDomainStatus.htm

      --
      for a minute there, i lost myself...
    4. Re:Hmm by 1nhuman · · Score: 0, Redundant

      screw.eu

      --
      The glass is half-full. With poison. And there are cracks in the glass. The dirty, dirty glass.
    5. Re:Hmm by richardablitt · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Cook islands, somewhere between Australia and South America.

    6. Re:Hmm by takeya · · Score: 1

      EEEEEE YOUUUUU

    7. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you pronounce "eu"?

      In portuguese, spanish (and italian I guess) it sounds some like "ae-oo"

      If it's how I think it is, "fuck.eu" would be a very nice domain to have.

      I thought the same thing, but in portuguese were that word is translated as 'fud.eu'

    8. Re:Hmm by alerante · · Score: 1

      Eu is the Portuguese equivalent of "I", the first-person pronoun. I think you may want to reconsider.

    9. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you may want to reconsider.

      That entirely depends on who is doing it ;)

    10. Re:Hmm by ZERO1ZERO · · Score: 1

      trashbat.co.ck

    11. Re:Hmm by Dr.+Cody · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, their TOS pretty much requires you to be a business.

    12. Re:Hmm by memnon · · Score: 0

      can reg those here: combell.com neither suck-my.co.ck or suck.co.ck are taken yet.
      does cost about $440 to reg them for 2 years, might be a bit much just cos its funny.

    13. Re:Hmm by fbjon · · Score: 1
      A-ha! I know where the next goatse will be located: eeew.eu

      (yes, it's still available)

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    14. Re:Hmm by andersbergh · · Score: 1

      http://google.co.ck/

    15. Re:Hmm by TummyX · · Score: 1

      Or more specifically, half way between hawaii and new zealand. "Somewhere between Australia and South America" covers most of the south pacific.

    16. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not very nice in portuguese, since "eu" means "me", so you *might* be passing the wrong message there...

    17. Re:Hmm by shking · · Score: 1

      Back in 1996 I tried to get ca.ca, but was refused

      --
      -- "At Microsoft, quality is job 1.1" -- PC Magazine, Nov. 1994
  2. My name by mtenhagen · · Score: 1

    My last name is gone, my first name is gone.

    But I have got gloogle.com ;-)

    --
    200GB/2TB $7.95 Coupon: SAVE90DOLLAR
    1. Re:My name by mtenhagen · · Score: 1

      gloogle.eu ofcourse

      --
      200GB/2TB $7.95 Coupon: SAVE90DOLLAR
    2. Re:My name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what? shut up, stop being stupid

  3. big in GB... by joe+155 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can't help but wonder with the amount of people registering in the GB, 257,368 at present, if this is meaning people are becoming more accepting of the idea of Britian being considered a part of europe. Normally people really try to avoid any connection between their company and europe because people just don't like to deal with anything from "there"... is the net leading the way towards a greater intergration?...

    --
    *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
    1. Re:big in GB... by taskforce · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I think many people are going to misinterpret this article. I doubt very much that any more than 10% of the registrations (at a liberal guess) would be actual companies registering .eu domains. Most of these are probably going to be resellers and squatters, which is why the UK proportion is so high.

      I can't think of any reason why a UK company would buy a .EU domain unless it was out to alienate it's customers, market to the rest of the EU under a different domain, or simply just bought every TLD for it's domain name.

      --
      My 3D Texturing Skinning work (under construction)
    2. Re:big in GB... by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      people are becoming more accepting of the idea of Britian being considered a part of europe.

      What else would Britian be a part of? I've never understood why the British seem to think themselves completely seperate from Europe.

      -Grey

      --
      Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
    3. Re:big in GB... by ickoonite · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Two words: island mentality. The Japanese have a similar view of the Asian mainland.

      I am no geographer, but one should not underestimate the fundamental importance it has in shaping the human experience.

      iqu :|

    4. Re:big in GB... by paedobear · · Score: 1

      You're an American aren't you. The Americans seem to consider themselves seperate from the whole of the rest of the world, so why is it a surprise that Britain - which has been at war with most of Europe for most of it's history, and has colonial connections with most of the world - would consider itself apart from it?

    5. Re:big in GB... by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes I am an American (though I moved to London three years ago). It still seems odd to me to hear my English co-workers talking about what is going on in Europe. To me it would be like hearing New Yorkers talk about taking a trip to America.

      -Grey

      --
      Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
    6. Re:big in GB... by JanneM · · Score: 1

      I can't think of any reason why a UK company would buy a .EU domain unless it was out to alienate it's customers, market to the rest of the EU under a different domain, or simply just bought every TLD for it's domain name.

      For more and more companies - in UK as in all other eu countries - the "home market" is increasingly eu as a whole, not the particular country they're residing in. Their relation to their customers in eu as a whole is as important as the customers in the home country - and a lot more important than the small minority that would get their underwear in knots over the use of an .eu domain.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    7. Re:big in GB... by Poltras · · Score: 1

      Actually, they DO have politics in .eu, and conflicts, debates, crisis, people, progress, good laws, etc... one thing America lacks as a whole (.ca and .mx too). My name is Hans, and I am Canadian. Though of european origins.

      --
      Of Code And Men
    8. Re:big in GB... by Haeleth · · Score: 2, Funny

      I can't help but wonder with the amount of people registering in the GB, 257,368 at present, if this is meaning people are becoming more accepting of the idea of Britian being considered a part of europe.

      Even UKIP.eu is registered! Truly we must be on the dawn of a new era.

    9. Re:big in GB... by Haeleth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It still seems odd to me to hear my English co-workers talking about what is going on in Europe. To me it would be like hearing New Yorkers talk about taking a trip to America.

      But I thought New Yorkers think New York is America? :P

      A better example would be Hawaiians. Do they see a difference between the part of the US that's in North America and the part of the US that's in Hawaii, or is it all just "America" to them?

    10. Re:big in GB... by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 1

      But I thought New Yorkers think New York is America?

      Well, it's the good part of America.

      Point taken about the Hawaiians though. I had a Hawaiian flatmate and she always refered to America as the mainland and didn't really think it had anything to do with Hawaii.

      -Grey

      --
      Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
    11. Re:big in GB... by blane.bramble · · Score: 1

      What else would Britian be a part of? I've never understood why the British seem to think themselves completely seperate from Europe.

      Well, consider the fact that "Europe" might refer to "Mainland Europe", which we aren't part of, or "the continent of Europe", which we are, or the "European Community/European Union" which we are also part of. It might be used to refer to the Franco/German ideal of a "United States of Europe" which we don't want much to do with. It could also be used to refer to the economic "European Monetary Union" which we aren't part of.

      Now do you understand a bit more?

    12. Re:big in GB... by m50d · · Score: 1

      The young are a lot more "into" computers. IME as a brit anyone under about 30 thinks Europe is a great thing, while those over 50 don't want anything to do with it.

      --
      I am trolling
    13. Re:big in GB... by bogjobber · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well that's slightly different. Hawaii had absolutely no cultural or geographic link to the Americas before about 150 years ago. Hawaii is also much further away from the US than Great Britain is from Europe. You can't exactly ride the train from Honolulu to LA. For example, the distance from Honolulu to San Diego (the closest large city from Hawaii) is about the same as the distance from London to Jerusalem.

    14. Re:big in GB... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except when it comes to Japan, the appropriate term is the much exaggerated stereotype of the Japanese people - "xenophobia."

    15. Re:big in GB... by Davey+McDave · · Score: 0

      A lot of people I know, most notably conservative supporters, seem to be afraid of Europe. I know a few people who are rabidly against it, even though they seem to understand relatively little about the economic situation between Britain and mainland Europe, which is the key issue really, the idea of national pride is complete nonsense - the afformentioned Euroskeptics appear to be deadly afraid of losing the £ for instance! It's only been around for like THIRTY YEARS in its current form, how is it tradition? (not to mention you have to be pretty shallow to consider a currency 'national identity')

      To answer the whole "why is the UK seemingly seperate from mainland Europe".. we are actually quite culturally seperate from the rest of Europe to be fair. For a start we owned a good third of the world at one point, so we've been indirectly influenced by a lot of that, plus our language is distinctly different (most powerful mainland European countries are related, french/spanish/italian are very latin derived and quite similar).. then of course there's the fact that English is used by the US, which means England has a particularly American streak in its culture, the stuff just transfers straight over. Friends, Frasier, Will & Grace, Britney Spears, Starbucks, hell, even Krispy Kreme. And, as previously mentioned, there's the fact that we don't feel connected geographically to mainland Europe either. The effect is a bit like having a big fence between you and them. The dividing line. This is where Europe stops and where the British Isles begin. Just how the Atlantic shows where Africa and Europe stops, and where the Americas begin.

      --
      I've got the spirit, lose the feeling.
    16. Re:big in GB... by smacktits · · Score: 1

      As a twenty-five year-old Brit, I completely disagree with both your statement and the sentiment that the EU is a ``great thing.''

    17. Re:big in GB... by meringuoid · · Score: 1
      Britain - which has been at war with most of Europe for most of it's history

      Not so. Over the course of the last thousand or so years, we've had wars at one time or another with just about every last country in Europe, but for most of our history we've been happily at peace with most of Europe, at war with some of it, and fighting alongside some more of it.

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    18. Re:big in GB... by m50d · · Score: 1

      Just my experience.

      --
      I am trolling
    19. Re:big in GB... by DataCannibal · · Score: 1
      I've never understood why the British seem to think themselves completely seperate from Europe.


      It's because the bastards keep trying to invade us, and we know how to spell separate :-)

      No, but seriously, there are serious cultural differences between GB and the rest of Western Europe.

      The first area is political. In "Europe" they tend to have proportional representation in elections as opposed to the direct mandate (or first-past-the-post) of the British System. This means that coalitions are almost unknown in the UK and as a result the UK hasn't developed a "political class" as distinctly as some other countries, such as Germany with it's "list" system. Tony Blair actually has to be elected to Parliament in his constituency like any other member of Parliament. The German Chancellor is elected only bu his/her party members. This has the result that financial scandal is almost unknown in British Politics and part of everyday life in France Germany and Italy.

      The second area is the law. The British system is adversarial while most of our European neighbours have an inquisatorial system.

      Thirdly education. The UK has comprehensive education throughout the country (with a few pockets of selective education). Selective education is the norm in most other countries, even in Northern Ireland, although New Labour is trying to ruin education there as well.

      Finally there's popular culture. What would you rather listen to Brit-Pop or Euro-Pop, Joe Strummer or Johnny Halliday, or watch: "A Fish Called Wanda" or "Monsieur Hulot en Vacance" or "Go, Trabi, Go" (yes, I've seen all three)? I rest my case.

      Personally I love Europe, I love travelleng there. I love French markets, Italian sportscars, German orchetras, Spanish wine... My wife is "European" and my children are bilingual. But the UK and Europe are different, we proved that in 1588 and we've been proving it ever since. A Federal Europe would be a "Big Mistake" TM.
      --
      No but, yeah but, no but...
    20. Re:big in GB... by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1
      ...if this is meaning people are becoming more accepting of the idea of Britian being considered a part of europe.

      Britain IS a part of Europe. It is a geographical fact. You cannot (sensibly) argue with it. Now there are some of us Brits, thankfully a minority so far, who think we should leave the EU but short of hiring a really large tug and towing the British Isles out into the mid-atlantic it will be very hard for them to stop us being a part of Europe.

      Interestingly enough there has been far more anti-EU sentiment coming out of France recently than Britain and yet nobody seems to be jumping on them as "anti-European". So I can't help wondering if this island mentality we are supposed to have affects more than the British.

  4. Question: by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Call me ignorant, but where does all the money for .eu (and the endless .whatever's to come) go? Is it payed into the European Union or some private company?

    -Grey

    --
    Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
    1. Re:Question: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All money goes to 'bankrupt.eu'

    2. Re:Question: by mOOzilla · · Score: 1

      It goes to some suit in the registrars. Just like every other business, the Fat Cats always win. This is just another money making SCAM on the part of registrars. Need more money, create a new TLD. Most companies have policies to register as many as they can to protect their BRAND. Lather Wrinse Repeat Its a SCAM.

    3. Re:Question: by floorpirate · · Score: 2, Informative

      A good portion of the money for a domain goes to whatever organization/company runs the registry. It pays for their staff, equipment, Net connection, etc. Don't know what the .eu domains actually cost, but for most domains, usually around half goes to the registry and the other half to the registrar that the domain was purchased through.

      --
      For every action there is a completely absurd lawsuit.
    4. Re:Question: by MonoSynth · · Score: 1

      No, hosting providers use it to hire limo's. :)

  5. Is this a case of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The UK initially led the way during Landrush but have since been overtaken by Germany

    ... get your towel off my domain name?

    1. Re:Is this a case of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... get your towel off my domain name?

      Then it surely would be the first case of the British having a head start of putting out the towels. :)
      Well, having had, it seems...

    2. Re:Is this a case of... by amliebsch · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm not surprised at all. Ther Germans have a long history of successful landrushing.

      --
      If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
    3. Re:Is this a case of... by patio11 · · Score: 1

      Ah, for pity's sake, give Poland back their namespace. They're such a nice, inoffensive country. If you had to squat on somebody, could you make it .fr? Granted, we'd eventually come to their aid, too, but we'd drag our heels a bit and lord it over them for the next fifty years while they constantly said "Oh, we had them on the ropes and then you Yanks had to come mess up our master plan".

      --
      Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
  6. Domain Squatting by cheetah_spottycat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is anyone surprised? I bet that these are 5% "real" registrations, and 95% domain squatters trying to register every single word from the encyclopedia britannica and all TLAs from 'AAA' to 'ZZZ' in one session.

    1. Re:Domain Squatting by nicklott · · Score: 1

      yep, mine pretty obscure one has been squatted.

    2. Re:Domain Squatting by rylin · · Score: 1

      Dunno how well organized the hardcore squatters are, but i managed to snag a nice 3-character domain 19 hours into the landrush.

  7. .eu is useless, it's a domain DMZ by Peter+Cooper · · Score: 0, Troll

    A lot of companies who have no legal rights in the European Union, like Flickr, FeedBurner, and, well, just pick 1000 names out of a hat.. have already been domain squatted on .eu. Even my own little web tool has had its domain name registered. To be honest, I'm surprised, as .eu names aren't cheap. .eu is a back-water. It'll have a small cluster of EU related domains that might be popular, but otherwise it's just another demilitarized zone where people register domains to be 'protected' but never actually use them.

    I don't see any good reason for anyone to bother with a .eu name. .eu patriotism isn't great enough to warrant it, it's confusing to new users, and many in the UK look at the EU with disdain anyway.

    I imagine .eu will be of primary use to companies with an overall (continental) European presence, but who's that? I can't even think of a single grocery store that's in more than two EU countries, let alone anything else.

    1. Re:.eu is useless, it's a domain DMZ by mikeplokta · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you can't think of any grocery stores in more than two EU countries, you're not thinking very hard. Try Aldi and Lidl, who both operate in numerous EU countries. In other sectors, there are chains like IKEA.

    2. Re:.eu is useless, it's a domain DMZ by caluml · · Score: 1
      Aldi and Lidl

      Hmmm, top end stuff there. Perhaps you'll become friends with their biggest fan, Faiza

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    3. Re:.eu is useless, it's a domain DMZ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      There are quite a lot of companies with legitimate interest in a .eu domain and will use it, but their number is more likely in the thousands than in the tens of thousands or millions, and all of them will retain their national domains as well. Generally speaking you're right.

      During the sunrise phases, an absurd number of new trademarks have been registered in nonsensical categories. "Sex (tm)" in the groceries category, registered right before the sunrise phase, qualifies as "prior right" to "sex.eu"?

      Registrars were only allowed to submit a small fixed number of registrations per second during the landrush, so what did some of them do to get through their queues faster? They created companies like "domain robot 1", "domain robot 2", etc. and entered them as registrars as well. You see, there's the British "Ltd.", which requires just 1 pound to open. Maybe that's how the UK managed to get more domains in at the start? On the other hand, anyone in Europe can now open a "Ltd." company now, so in proper turbo-capitalism fashion, it's probably their own fault for not doing the same.

      My not-so-common surname btw was registered by a well-known domain grabber, who now uses it as another "this on ebay" spam site. I know of about half a dozen companies who would have been able to legitimately claim prior right on that domain. None of them did, probably because the enormous costs of registering during the sunrise phases far outweighed the benefit. It doesn't bother me too much that I didn't get the domain, because I have it in my country's TLD and in one of the GTLDs, but I would really have wanted one of these companies to get it instead, not some useless domain squatter. I'll see if it's a sign of a trend or just a coincidence, but I'd wager that "-site:.eu" will have to join "-site:.info" in my Google search template soon if I don't want to drown in spam search results.

      Just an aside: The second biggest namespace is the .de country TLD of Germany, with 9.7 million domains. Behind that is ".net" with about 7 million domains and only then comes ".uk" with 4.8 million domains. These results aren't really surprising as the .de TLD is the most cost effective TLD. You can get them for just cents a month, and that's the quantity-1 price, not just for resellers. The .de-TLD servers are all over the world, so the performance is excellent. It's not a "cheap" TLD. But hey, ICANN probably knew what they were doing when they handed .net to Verisign instead of to the DeNIC non-profit.

    4. Re:.eu is useless, it's a domain DMZ by googleking · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually flickr.eu shows as application pending to Yahoo on whois.eu, but I agree with you about feedburner.

      I tried to register three .eu domains which are fairly meaningless to all but myself; I had the registrations in in advance waiting for the landrush to open but it seems like other people got them. In two cases the lucky winners are people with names like "thisdomainforsale.com" and in the third, whois.eu gives an address in China - I've no idea how that can have happened.

      So in my experience, .eu has just become yet another cybersquatter/Sedo hell, which is a shame; I had hoped that the higher cost of .eu domains (the cheapest I've seen is 5 GBP per year but the average registration cost seems to be 15-20 EUR) would prevent most of the speculator scum.

    5. Re:.eu is useless, it's a domain DMZ by daBass · · Score: 1

      Uhm, Tesco?

      But I see your point, I own various .com/.net/.co.uk domains but can't think of a single reason to register any of them under .eu. But there are many companies that operate throughout the EU and they might find it very interesting to use .eu for their corporate homepage and country TLDs for specific sites in local languages.

      By the way, after spending years in London, I realise the British look with disdain against anything that is not British, the EU - which they conveniently forget they are a major part of and speak of "UK" and "Europe", as if the latter does not include the former - just gets more flack because it is closer to home.

      The funniest thing I ever overheard was a conversation of an English couple on holiday in Malta finding it "strange" that their hosts island - now being an EU country - had not adopted the Euro as it's currency...

    6. Re:.eu is useless, it's a domain DMZ by dajak · · Score: 2, Informative

      Spar, Ahold, Carrefour, Delhaize. In most countries just 2 or 3 multinational chains dominate the market. Most multinational European chains operate under different names in different member countries, though. Ahold and Delhaize also operate in the US under 10 different names.

  8. EU is such a silly idea... by Jugalator · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why not... .UN! All members in the United Nations can register one! :-p
    Redundancy and more redundancy for the domain registrars to make money...

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    1. Re:EU is such a silly idea... by wizzdude · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, not entirely.

      The European Union is a free trade area so there are import/export duties on goods traded with the zone. There are some businesses who would therefore treat this entire area as one and for them branding themselves under an EU domain would make sense.

      A UN domain would never be used for that reason as it is purely political and not economic.

      --
      Mod me down now and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
    2. Re:EU is such a silly idea... by mOOzilla · · Score: 1

      TLDs have no meaning anymore , "brand protection" has diluted the purpose of having TLDs in the first place, everybody just squats their brand on every TLD they can find. ORG is no longer an ORGINSATION, COM is no longer a COMPANY, NET is no longer a NETWORK ENTITY, UK is no longer a UK only TLD etc etc... In short, this is just another money making SCAM.

    3. Re:EU is such a silly idea... by drspliff · · Score: 1

      Well if somebody hadn't *cough* cocked up the whole DNS system and thought it through properly before letting the corporations get their fingers in the global DNS pie then we could've ended up with something like:

      uk.com.mycompany.www

      With larger areas such as the EU, australasia, the UN, the americas etc. all having their own TLD. As long as the rules are followed you wouldn't end up with mom-and-pop 'look im running an internet shop' businesses that serve only the surrounding states and all the other regular pollution.

      On a second note, why do some companies have to purchase a second domain name for subsites.. for example ebaystatic.com, windowsupdate.com, MyBanksPersonalInternetBankingSystemOnlineOrWhatev er.com.

      ** calms down enough to check for spelling mistakes **

      Ok I'm done!

    4. Re:EU is such a silly idea... by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      Yes, you're right here, and I was just using my example to illustrate the redundancy. I mean, there's basically no company dealing with the entire EU before this introduction that couldn't register a good domain name, right? The UN example was just to show how that would also introduce TLD redudancy, much like any company in the EU today already having a .com or a national TLD. (but maybe more likely, a .com, national, .biz, .net, .info, and a bunch of other national TLD's)

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  9. uk second biggest domain after .com? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to Nominet http://www.nic.uk/ it's only the forth biggest namespace, not second.
    As far as I know, Germany (over 9.5 million .de-domains) has the second largest namespace.

    1. Re:uk second biggest domain after .com? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Current number of .de domains can be found here.

      I also remember .de being the second largest name space.

    2. Re:uk second biggest domain after .com? by binkzz · · Score: 1

      FTS:

      "Predictions of .eu becoming the second biggest domain after .com look like they may become true,"

      They didn't say it was the second biggest, they said it is predicted that .eu will become the second biggest.

      --
      'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
    3. Re:uk second biggest domain after .com? by mathtm · · Score: 1

      You should read the whole sentence :)

      "with Nominet being responsible for "over four million" .uk domains, the second biggest namespace."

    4. Re:uk second biggest domain after .com? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should read the next sentence

      "The UK initially led the way during Landrush but have since been overtaken by Germany"

    5. Re:uk second biggest domain after .com? by slavemowgli · · Score: 1

      "Predictions of .eu becoming the second biggest domain after .com look like they may become true, with Nominet being responsible for "over four million" .uk domains, the second biggest namespace."

      It seems to me that the grammar's a bit strange there, but it seems that the author wanted to say that .eu looks like it will take over as the second biggest TLD from .uk (which would imply that .uk currently is the second biggest).

      --
      quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
    6. Re:uk second biggest domain after .com? by erichschubert · · Score: 1

      This refers to domains _within_ the .eu domain.
      Germany overtook the GB in registrations for .eu domains. GB is still second for .eu I think. .de has been bigger than .uk for quite some time I think. And .uk is only fourth biggest. .net is third.

      http://www.denic.de/media/images/monatszahlen/TLD- Vergleich.gif

      I wouldn't bet that the .eu domain will become second biggest. Domain squatting will become less and less important with the increasing number of TLDs, and the rush on personal domains is also kind of slowed down. People would register "firstname-lastname.de", but probably not firstname-lastname.eu, but try nickname-lastname.de first.

      --
      Debian GNU/Linux - apt-get into it.
    7. Re:uk second biggest domain after .com? by gavint · · Score: 1

      That's what I meant, but I didn't research that bit properly. Thanks for correcting it.

  10. embiggen.eu is still available by psykax · · Score: 3, Funny

    for legitimate pharmaceutical suppliers, of course

  11. Sex by quokkapox · · Score: 1
    One million new domains?! Eeek! Don't worry, we can still restrict pr0n to just the .xxx domain and happily dance with our properly clothed children in the meadow of Puritanical safety which is .[com|net|org|edu]

    Or something like that. You Europeans are with us on pr0n, right? China? Ok. Russia!?!?!!

    --
    it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
    1. Re:Sex by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      You Europeans are with us on pr0n, right?

      The Germans and British will be, but good luck convincing the French and Dutch.

    2. Re:Sex by RickySan · · Score: 1

      Say what you will about us Dutch folk, but at least things are out in the open which in return has as a side effect a very low teen pregnancy rate, can you say that about the US and UK? I don't think so, the UK has the highest count within the EU, and the US, ha!, well, look at who heads the country there.. nuff said!

      --
      "If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low
    3. Re:Sex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This would be the same Germany that has an MTV that has had exposed breasts on non-scrambled analogue satellite at mid day?

  12. Don't mention the landrush by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    The UK initially led the way during Landrush but have since been overtaken by Germany, with over a quarter of all registered domains.

    Don't worry, in a couple of years the US will join in and help us take them all back.

    1. Re:Don't mention the landrush by sxtxixtxcxh · · Score: 0

      Brilliant!

      --
      for a minute there, i lost myself...
  13. In Soviet Russia... by borgdows · · Score: 4, Funny

    insovietrussiadomainsregister.EU !!

    1. Re:In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting? I hope that was a mis-click. This is a joke, not a philosophical comment!

  14. some .eus :) by tomasvilda · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.google.lt/search?q=site:.eu -- http://stilius.net/

  15. I tried to register .eu through GoDaddy weeks ago by expro · · Score: 1

    Big mistake because they apparently just held the registration until April 7th instead of helping with any sort of actual registration, so I discover that half a dozen businesses are ahead of me now in the queue.

  16. Re:I tried to register .eu through GoDaddy weeks a by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Duh, go look what Landrush and Sunrise mean.

  17. Duh, yourself. by expro · · Score: 1

    GoDaddy had no link to landrush or sunrise, but only added .eu as a domain you could purchase.

  18. Relatively few from France? by Rogue+Pat · · Score: 1

    Looking at the stats, there are currently very few registrations from France.
    Sweden and the Netherlands for instance have more registrations than France with far less inhabitatants. Also Belgium is not that far off from France, while it's a lot smaller.

    What does that say about France's EU feeling?

    1. Re:Relatively few from France? by Anne+Honime · · Score: 2, Informative
      What does that say about France's EU feeling?

      Not much, I think ; historicaly, *.fr has been reserved to chartered companies and trademarks holders, so many french individuals had to buy a .com or .net already. Many companies did, too,because .fr is f*cking expensive. This afnic nonsense is backfiring today, because those who might have been interested are avoiding "continental red tape" (we invented it, so we have developped more strategies than others to turn around it whenever possible) and will probably stick with a general TLD unless the almighty USoA start pissing us by tightening the conditions of registration.

    2. Re:Relatively few from France? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They gave up?

    3. Re:Relatively few from France? by sjwest · · Score: 1

      France was big in minitel Minitel is still a force to be reconed with ?

      wiki: Minitel was often considered as an impediment for a fast deployment of the Internet in France, since it already provided safe and easy online access for many useful services without requiring a personal computer.

      The bbc link in the wiki (dated 2003) reports "Despite reports of its demise, a third of the French still have access to the Minitel network and four million terminals are in daily use."

    4. Re:Relatively few from France? by Anne+Honime · · Score: 1

      While minitel is still alive as a network, most of the users access it through internet today via an IE plugin. Most like you probably access the news via nntp instead of uucp.

    5. Re:Relatively few from France? by Zifro · · Score: 1

      Let us time ;-) I'm not a company, but I registered 6 .eu domains (not for squatting). But don't worry, we're happy to be part of the Europe !

    6. Re:Relatively few from France? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, that may explain why I was able to register un-pn.eu for my blog.

    7. Re:Relatively few from France? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does that say about France's EU feeling?

      sacrebl.eu!?

    8. Re:Relatively few from France? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well duh, everyone knows they have better things to do.

      (apologies, I couldn't resist)

  19. Double duh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Then their fault is not holding it back, but rather not informing you about the concept of Landrush and Sunrise which every single other registrar was talking about.

    IOW, use a registrar that doesn't suck.

  20. It's taken by gerf · · Score: 1

    The closest to this pattern (screw.eu, ihate.eu, etc) is beerfor.eu

    Not that I'll register it of course

  21. Finally. by Your-a-Peein · · Score: 0

    My destiny has arrived.

    1. Re:Finally. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. Open wide and get ready to receive a splattery mess.

  22. I think... by ickeicke · · Score: 1

    I think that fuck.eu is going to be a very wanted domain anyway, whatever the pronunciation.

    --
    Firehed - Unfortunately, thanks to medical breakthroughs, common sense is not as common as it once was.
  23. I wish... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish I could quit .eu

  24. .int by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's already .int though, as far as I know, it's only open to international organizations, like, for example, www.wto.int and www.un.int.

    1. Re:.int by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but that didn't stop the .biz TLD phenomenon despite .com existing. ;-)
      And if it was introduced to solve domain shortage, I don't see that as anything more than a bandaid solution.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  25. and .co.uk is not a mouthfull ? by sjwest · · Score: 1

    We have a .co.uk - im moving to .eu if your activity can be done anywhere in the eu then .eu makes sense - if your 'branded' only in one country then .fr/.de./.gr makes sense there still much nicer than .co.uk is personally speaking.

    We are thinking to drop the .co.uk

  26. It wasn't fair! by Cronq · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Over 1,000 registration agents were only allowed one connection each to EURid's servers in order to prevent problems and ensure fairness."

    Fairness? Please check official registrars list on the eurid web site. There are tons of clons there sharing the same address and/or telephone number just to avoid 1 connection to eurid limit.

    And what eurid did about this? Nothing.

  27. Other info that would have been nice... by expro · · Score: 1

    The smaller the registrar, the more-likely they would be able to reserve the name you want since every registrar got one connection regardless of how many names they served.

    1. Re:Other info that would have been nice... by TCM · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Indeed. I know people who made the mistake of going with the big players, only to find out that their wanted names had been taken as soon as 6 minutes after the start of Landrush.

      Even hours later, 1&1 hadn't registered names that were still free. 18 and a half hours(!) later those names were finally registered.

      Smaller registrars were said to have completed their whole(!) procedure after 17 minutes of the start.

      --
      Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
    2. Re:Other info that would have been nice... by gavint · · Score: 1

      My employers used Joker.com, who are claiming a 47% success rate on queued regitrations.

    3. Re:Other info that would have been nice... by FrostedWheat · · Score: 1

      Eclipse knew what they where doing ... they offered 1000 free .eu domains. I went and got five of them (this was a week before landrush) and, despite the fact that those domains where free for a good few hours, I lost all but one because Eclipse where far far to slow. It took them until today to register the one that I did get. Blah!

      1000 free domains, probably about 10 actually registered in the end. Blah.

  28. .eu? by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 1

    Never mind .eu, it's all about 'cock' domains!

    For example - http://www.google.co.ck/

    --
    throw new NoSignatureException();
  29. Politics has nothing to do with it by giafly · · Score: 1
    In my case, this has nothing to do with agreement, or otherwise, for the European Union as an institution. It's:
    1. To defend against pranksters and cybersquatters
    2. A cheap way to show commitment to provide technical support for our customers who trade throughout the EU.
    --
    Reduce, reuse, cycle
  30. Google.eu ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Currently there is no Google.eu domain, but when I did a whois on it, I was told it was "pending". How does a domain pend, since pre-registering is over?

    1. Re:Google.eu ? by kill-1 · · Score: 1

      Because it will take them some months to validate all the pre-registrations.

  31. Blocking *.eu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Every registered domain I tried so far gives me this:
    Registrant:
    Please visit www.eurid.eu for webbased whois.
    Here's my response:
    echo ".eu REJECT No registrant info via whois.eu" >> /etc/postfix/access && postmap /etc/postfix/access
  32. .EU is more important then you might think by BadassJesus · · Score: 1

    First of all .EU also means Europe not only European Union (even if officials say so) and from that perspective its a huge gateway into region that only US can rival.

    Car.eu, shop.eu, RealEstate.eu, realty.eu was gone in first seconds of sunrise preregistration. Many practiced trademarking and other "techniques" to claim even generic domain names (wich was critisized many times). Nice read is "EU Domain Disaster" http://www.eudomaindesaster.org/pageindex.php?lang =EN

    Also Eurid.eu allowed only one connection per registrar yesterday. That didn't not stop domain sharks like Pool.com to cooperate/create(?) many subregistrars to get multiple "pooling power" to access the db and squatter as much domains as possible for them. They were claiming (http://www.eu.pool.com/) 80% percent success rate for the sunrise and 60% for the "Land Rush" craziness that occured yesterday (resulting auctions of the aquired domain names begin on monday ;). That is really jaw dropper for an average European Joe to behold.

    1. Re:.EU is more important then you might think by LeftOfCentre · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, .eu in this case does mean European Union and nothing else. Only businesses, organizations and residents of the union can register a domain under the new TLD.

    2. Re:.EU is more important then you might think by BadassJesus · · Score: 1

      So from the perspective of an American, .EU domain that carry for example "historic.eu" doesn't resemble "Historic Europe" bottom line ? I personally viewed this as a interesting domain about historical places of Europe. I really don't care about winning the argument here, I am just curious about what an American perspective of this is.

  33. Well its official by EgoManiacUK · · Score: 1

    With all those eu registered, it seems that most 3 letter domains have gone.... Just hope they all did not go to cybersquatters

  34. THANK.EU by Richard+W.M.+Jones · · Score: 1
    Someone seems to have got up early on 7th to register thank.eu.

    And fuck.eu too.

    Damn.

    Rich.

    --
    libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
  35. When are they going to be active? by drwho · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I registered 8 .eu domains on friday. I got my last name, three three-letter domains, and my company name. I used godaddy for them all. They're still "Pending Application" - I wonder how much BS I am going to have to go through before any or all of these are active. I would have thought with all that 'sunrise' stuff that any checking as far as an existing legitimate claim would have been taken care of already, and that the domains would be active within a couple of hours.

    I did use a European address and phone number, but maybe they are checking on a business registered at that location? How much do they really care?

    Is anyone else having this type of trouble? Has anyone else been successful in getting a .eu domains with a less-than-perfect contact address?

    1. Re:When are they going to be active? by drwho · · Score: 2

      I feel funny replying to my own mesage, but -- does anyone know of a free (or dirt cheap) VoIP service with voicemail that can provide me a phone number in Leipzig, Germany (country code 49, city code 341)? How about a mail drop service?

    2. Re:When are they going to be active? by blue-banana · · Score: 1

      which names did you register ?

    3. Re:When are they going to be active? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      VoIP providers are prohibited from registering local numbers to people or companies who don't have an address in the area. You can get numbers in a special VoIP area code without problems and for free too, but these aren't reachable reliably yet. Technically all other phone service providers have to follow the same rule, but AFAIK the cellphone provider O2 still allows you to place your "homezone" wherever you like and a local number goes with it. Plans are about 5 EUR per month. Many young people don't have a landline anymore, so using a non-geographic cellphone number as your main phone number isn't unusual. A cheap prepaid card may be sufficient for your purposes.

      Maildrops or complete office presences are rather expensive in comparison to simple phone forwarding. You'll find them under "Büroservice" or "Geschäftsadresse".

    4. Re:When are they going to be active? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how about Skype?

    5. Re:When are they going to be active? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about it? Skype-In with a German local number requires a German address in that area.

    6. Re:When are they going to be active? by drwho · · Score: 1

      I went with Axxeso. 3eu to start, .50 per month, decent per minutes rates. The problem is, my phone number is so damned long.

    7. Re:When are they going to be active? by Potor · · Score: 1
      i got my last name, with no problems, from b-one.net - dirt cheap, too.

      i've already put content up.

  36. linux.eu by quantiz · · Score: 0, Troll

    I see a "Linus Torvalds" individual for linux.eu. Is Torvalds himself? The registration is located in Germany... If Linus then why through Germany?

    1. Re:linux.eu by Tacvek · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The address given belongs to "Gille, Hrabal, Struck, Neidlein, Prop & Roos".

      Gille, Hrabal, Struck, Neidlein, Prop & Roos is a German patent/trademark law firm. I would assume that if the registration is valid, the firm is acting on Linus's behalf.

      Also note that they registered in their own name also. A bit strange.
      If they are acting on behalf of Linus, they will most likely (or hopefully, anyway) be granted the domain.

      --
      Stylish sheet to fix many problems in Slashdot's D3: https://gist.github.com/801524
  37. McDonalds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    McDonalds operates in most EU countries but I doubt that they have any real desire for a EU domain name, beyond trademark protection.

    But, then again, McDonalds.eu sums it up pretty well!

  38. A Different Opinion by Zx-man · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why do we need geography/politics-based domain names at all? Or, since we are already there and cannot go back, why do we need more of 'em?
    Wouldn't it be more logical to have domains corresponding to specific thematics? (e.g. slashdot.compsci)

    1. Re:A Different Opinion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      have domains corresponding to specific thematics? (e.g. slashdot.compsci)

      .compsci? Do you filter to +5 Informative or something? It you want themes, how about slashdot.nerdrant?

  39. why would IKEA be a .eu address? by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 1

    They aren't confined to the EU any more than they are confined to Sweden.

    They have to have a .com (or similar) address or gobs of country-by-country addresses. I'm not sure how .eu alleviates this much.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95