Nominet has announced plans to offer registrations directly before the ‘dot’ in .uk.
From summer 2014, shorter, simpler ‘example.uk’ domain names will be available for the first time alongside ‘example.co.uk’, ‘example.org.uk’ and so on. This represents the biggest modification of the .uk namespace since it began.
Any unique ‘example.uk’ domain name (e.g. one that does not have an equivalent name already registered as a .co.uk or a .org.uk) will be available on a first-come, first served basis from launch.
Over ten million existing .uk customers will be offered the shorter equivalent of their current address, with five years to decide whether they want to use it in addition to, or instead of the domain they already have. In the small proportion of instances where there could be competition – e.g. where one person holds example.co.uk and another holds example.org.uk – the shorter domain will be offered to the .co.uk registrant.
The five-year free reservation period is designed to help businesses taking up the new domain do so at a time that coincides with when they next change signage or stationary, so they don’t incur unnecessary incremental costs.
All Nominet’s existing domains (.co.uk, .org.uk, .net.uk, .me.uk, .plc.uk, .ltd.uk and sch.uk) will continue to run as normal.
