Nominet Floats Idea of .UK Domain Names
Proposal for new, shorter UK domains.
Right now, UK-based websites have the option of procuring a .co.uk domain name. However, there could soon be another choice. The BBC reports that Nominet, the non-profit that oversees all net addresses ending in .uk has put forth a proposal for a new service called direct.uk that would offer .uk domains with added security features.
According to the BBC, businesses seeking to acquire a .uk domain would have to prove that they have a UK presence as well as pay significantly more than the price of a regular .co.uk domain. The going rate for one of these .uk addresses would be £20 per year. This is compared to the £5 .co.uk owners pay every other year. However, Nominet says that these new, shorter domains would also benefit from added security measures.
"We would do daily malware scanning of these domain names and associated sites and they would be DNSSEC-signed [Domain Name System Security Extensions] - that's a security protocol that adds a digital signature to a domain to minimise the risk of domain-hijacking, and it also ensures that when you are going to go to a domain you reach the one you wanted to reach," Nominet's Eleanor Bradley told the BBC. "It would all be brought together with a Trust Mark so that consumers and people visiting these .uk domain names would get an immediate indication of the security and nature of the registration."
The direct.uk service would operate alongside .co.uk. Nominet has launched a three-month consultation for the propose idea. The consultation will run through until January 7. You can respond to the consultation here.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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builder4 I wish they would stop messing around with all these new TLDs, it is just going to cause confusion. The internet will soon be full of fake phishing websites with the domain names like "paypal.pay", "paypal.bank", "paypal.cash", "paypal.money", "paypal.con" etc. and no one will know which one is the right one instinctively. I assume almost all major compnies are going to stick with .com for a while to come though.Reply -
contentsmayvary Major companies like the BBC, bbc.co.uk? How about google.co.uk? Microsoft.co.uk?Reply
With this proposal, these could become bbc.uk, google.uk, Microsoft.uk. Makes sense! -
back_by_demand Paying "significantly" more, £20 per year for a business is not remotely "significant", an average office worker in London can spend that on lunch.Reply -
thecolorblue brilliant ploy to force existing websites to purchase the .uk version of their existing websites... along with all of the common misspellings and other variants necessary to protect their brand... at a higher price of course!!!Reply
brilliant monegrab!