Nominet, the non-profit organisation responsible for administering domain names (the easy to remember address for websites) has announced proposals for a new .uk domain. Currently all businesses using a UK-based domain get an address like abc.co.uk or xyz.co.uk, but under the new proposals would also be able to buy abc.uk or xyz.uk.
Nominet claim these new changes will help boost the economic growth with the UK by making web addresses slightly shorter and therefore easier to remember. However, as 93% of all UK domain names already using the existing .co.uk format, some industry experts are concerned that this change will simply be another cost to be borne by existing website owners.
These experts argue that the owner of abc.co.uk will be compelled to purchase abc.uk to prevent their competitors registering the new address and poaching their customers in the process. Worse still, companies may find the .uk address is unavailable to them because trademark holders take priority in the purchasing process.
Despite the (debatable) projected benefits to the wider economy, the new domains are expected to cost UK business an additional £50 million per year in additional costs.
The .uk domain proposal is currently under consultation. As a result you can leave your own feedback on the proposal, positive or negative, using the form here (http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1025946/Nominet-Consultation-On-a-New-UK-Name-Service) – just make sure you have a spare half-hour to complete the process!
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