Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Shorter '.uk' Domain Name Put On Ice

Posted by Unknown on from the sudden-outbreak-of-good-sense dept.

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."

6 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Well, shit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    There will not be a motherf.uk

  2. F.and S by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Funny

    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);
    1. Re:F.and S by dave1791 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I am totally registering goats.uk if they do this.

  3. Re:Don't change it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    That is great idea but I would also want:

    xxx.org.[country_code] for non-profit porn.
    xxx.asn.[country_code] for locker room porn.
    xxx.edu.[country_code] for college porn.
    xxx.gov.[country_code] for whitehouse porn.
    xxx.pub.[country_code] for amatuer porn.

  4. Re:Should be .gb not .uk by LQ · · Score: 4, Informative

    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...

    Oh, Christ. Don't get me started. It should never have been GB in the first place since GB is only a subset of UK. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminology_of_the_British_Isles .

  5. Problems with .uk by malx · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.