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Shorter '.uk' Domain Name Put On Ice
judgecorp writes "The British domain name registry, Nominet, has abandoned the idea of a shorter .uk domain name system, which would replace the current regime where all .uk domains are in subdomains, such as .co.uk, or .org.uk. Although a consultation found a huge demand for a simpler system, Nominet couldn't get agreement on how to get there from here — so has put the idea to one side for now. There are some shorter addreses like british-library.uk — but these predate Nominet's regime."
There will not be a motherf.uk
I would think that it wouldn't have been lost on anyone the problem with websites ending in F or S. Or even Y. Co.uk just doesn't have the same naming problems.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
I prefer the 2nd level domain system on a national level it is easier for dispute resolution.
All domains should have something like this:
com.[country_code] for registered national business
org.[country_code] for registered national organisation
asn.[country_code] for registered national association
edu.[country_code] for registered national education
gov.[country_code] for official government usage
pub.[country_code] for private usage
xxx.com.[country_code] for registered national porn.
Everything else should be scrapped.
Unfortunately the whole DNS is fuxxored from the start by a lack of foresight and unfortunately it's too late to fix it.
The US may have invented it but they invented a piece of crap which only benefits lawyers.
my 2c.
I work in a solicitors in the UK. Our website address is .com, as is the address from a huge majority of solicitors who I have to look up daily in order to write to them. As well as other organisations that would be related: banks, utility companies, estate agents, auction companies, funeral-directors, housing companies, etc. The majority are .com, few are .org. None are .co.uk. The only exception was one I came across yesterday that was a new property company that had their main page on a .net.uk and all subsequent pages linked to a .com for whatever reason. Government entities are all using .gov.uk, but that's to be expected.
My point is, at least in the sector of business that I'm involved in, .whatever.uk simply isn't used. Probably because it's a stupid system. Why would they change their website now if people are happy with .com/.org?
Nominet couldn't get agreement on how to get there from here
Nominet couldn't figure out how to extort most money from the inevitable rush on the new domain space. .uk to existing .co.uk or .org.uk and have some difficulty reaching an agreement on how that would be done fairly, but I highly doubt that is the issue they're facing).
(They could try and figure out some method of costfree assigning
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
We still use the mile, and most market stalls still list prices in both kilograms and pounds. Measuring the weight of a person is still done in stone and pounds in the home in many cases. Some builders and estate agents still use feet and inches. So in reality us Brits have to be able to work with either system and be able to convert between them.
As per ISO 3166, the correct two-character code for that country is GB, not UK. The TLD ought to match.
Unfortunately, changing *.uk to *.gb would be about as easy as the IPv6 switchover...
http://f.uk/ will do
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
The main reasons the public consultation was so negative regarding the .uk domain was because Nominet wanted to tack on a load of "security" features only available for .uk domains, and there being a general feeling that this was just a money making scheme forcing all UK companies to buy 2 domains.
All Nominet had to do was offer those security features to existing domains, and give all current domain holders their equivalent .uk domain. But no, instead they ice the whole thing.
Part of the problem was one of precedence: many holders of domains under .co.uk, .org.uk and several other existing subdomains were happy with the idea of getting a shorter domain - but very unhappy with the thought that they might lose it to a competing domain owner with the same name in a different sub-domain - or even to a trademark holder with no exact equivalent at the moment.
Another part of the problem was Nominet's proposal for "security". In the name of building "trust and confidence in .uk" Nominet had proposed to extend itself from traditional registry options to scanning websites for malware, and using its power to suspend domains to enforce clean-up. Not surprisingly, this was controversial.
Note also that Nominet has said it might come back with some variant of these proposals later, perhaps extending its "security" scheme to all the existing .uk domains.
Note that in the early days, the UK had a different domain naming system where the country code was first, then descending down into further detail.
Like uk.co.bbc (instead of bbc.co.uk)
Pity that they abandoned that, instead of convincing everyone else to use it.
Don't most people find their way to a site from a search engine or links off another page? Quite frankly, to me urls are like phone numbers or email addresses - they can be important but once they're in the system I let that take care of them. I can honestly say I do not know any of my friends' phone number or email address or any URLs of note - why would I?
One world, one internet, one stupid bit of identification that gets abstracted away within seconds. Why make the distinction at all?
So in reality us Brits have to be able to work with either system and be able to convert between them.
Not really, you are only working with a small subset of imperial units. I bet that you don't even know how to convert between a Dutch and a French inch.
It hasn't been abandoned see their news release http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/update-directuk The problem was that in the original proposal they intended to give priority to trademark proprietors but this was campaigned against mainly by domainers who stood to loose out. A majority of useful .co.uk domains are held by domain prospectors and the original proposal would have meant that other people would have had a chance at registering a domain by showing some sort of entitlement to it.
Now however nominet are suggesting that they look at changing the proposal to "A revised phased release mechanism based largely on the prior registrations of domains in existing third levels within .uk" effectively making it a simple domain tax where exiting .co.uk & org.uk domain registrants will feel obliged to take the option to get the .uk version of their domain.
The whole idea is is a farce and nothing more than a money making exercise for nominet. They claim that there was broad support for new 'features' such as addres verification. They have however not demonstrated an valid reason as to why they need to start selling domains in the .uk space rather than simply applying these new 'features' to the existing system.
Nobody stands to gain anything from the direct.uk proposal but despite that nominet seems the be determined to try again, what does that tell you ? I would encourage people to send in their complaints to policy@nominet.org.uk
Can someone please explain me (like I'm five) why .co.uk has been used in the first place instead of the .uk?
So in reality us Brits have to be able to work with either system and be able to convert between them.
Not really, you are only working with a small subset of imperial units. I bet that you don't even know how to convert between a Dutch and a French inch.
We don't need to - everyone knows the British inch is best :)
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
You can always just get Cook Island domains.
I find "subzero" confusing in Canadian or British weather. Adds to the wind-chill confusion, but that is less common.
I read somewhere British phone numbers are the most difficult to remember. Maybe it's the punctuation, but I mostly like the U.S. system, except for the newer area code regime.
Perhaps the day will come when we all have to put "dot earth" at the end of our domain names.
And of course eventually "dot earth dot sol" after that.
Oh, and the billion as million-million thing too. Does the BBC still stick with "thousand million" and "million million" exclusively? Can't recall I've heard it recently.
Eminently sensible. ".com" should have been "us.co." from the start
An added advantage would be automatic prepending of your local country code, and perhaps even your choice of second-level, if omitted -- so "http://ge/" would map to us.co.ge for USA users and uk.co.ge for users in Llandudno.
Plenty of fun to be had with this system too, http://co.co.chanel/ and http://be.me.up.scotty/ for starters.
I don't think anybody thinks in terms of billion = million million over here these days (even the Treasury... though if you ask them, the poor sod who answers the phone might have to go and check... just to be sure...)
We've given up, and billion means thousand million in British English now.
Even more embarrassing, we now called muffins "English Muffins", because everyone thinks muffins are those fluffy things baked in tins that Starbucks sell.
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I work in a solicitors in the UK. Our website address is .com, as is the address from a huge majority of solicitors who I have to look up daily in order to write to them.
What was the point of you writing this? You must know it's clearly wrong. "dot co dot you kay" is as well-knows as "dot com" in the UK. Of the 10 "local results" that come up when I type "solicitors" into Google, nine have a .co.uk domain for their website.
And how about: argos.co.uk, three.co.uk, orange.co.uk, bbc.co.uk, guardian.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk, mtv.co.uk, ...
They don't seem as popular as .de in Germany (15M domains), but they're a lot more popular than .us (only 1M domains in a much bigger country).
There's a good reason for that. It had to do with power, history and languages (French/English). And Ukraine was after all under Russian control at the time. When the UN was founded the Russians insisted of course they be treated as a separate entity.
> Not really, you are only working with a small subset of imperial units.
Newsflash: NOBODY, not even AMERICANS, uses the "full set" of imperial units in daily life. The main POINT Of imperial units, and why they persist, is because for some specific problem domains, they happen to work with nicer whole units that are more convenient for that purpose. Americans happily buy Diet Mountain Dew in 12oz cans and 2-liter bottles.
Sub-zero means that it is below freezing point of water. So you have ice below zero.
It is better than some arbitrary 0F that happens to be a particular concentrations of ice and salt and a 100F to be the temperature of the armpit of the wife of the inventor.
Also if you live far north enough, the temperature actually also goes negative in the F scale. So using the F scale does not mean you get to ignore negative numbers from you failing grade in math.
Cook Islands .ck TLD should in theory let you have web addresses like "big.co.ck" or "oh.fu.ck". However they don't appear to work.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
England should get the .en domain. Whales should get thu .wl domain. Northern Ireland should get a domain, but .ni is taken. .st, .sd, .so, and .st are taken, but I'm sure some domain could be thought of for Scotland.
Domain: sh.it
Status: UNASSIGNABLE