You may know about this, but you probably don’t.
Nominet, the .UK registry, is currently going through a consultation stage to allow open registrations in the top .uk level. This means that as well as having mycompany.co.uk, someone will be able to get mycompany.uk.
Most .UK domain holders don’t know about this because Nominet are not publicising it very well, and when they do they are using wording to try to give the advantages of the change, without pointing out all the disadvantages. For instance:
- there is no automatic right, so bbc.uk may NOT go to the BBC, so bbc.co.uk and bbc.uk may point to different websites.
- there are extra costs
- the way Nominet are wording the proposal it implies that .co.uk will be untrustworthy and second class
I would recommend that anyone who has built a reputation for their .co.uk domain read into this topic and give feedback to Nominet as soon as possible. The closing date for the consultation period is 7 January 2013.
Some useful links:
http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/
http://www.mydomainnames.co.uk/pros-and-cons.html
http://www.ukproposal.org.uk/What%20is%20wrong%20with%20the%20Nominet%20uk%20Proposal.pdf