Welcome to the .uk - Unless You’re Not in the UK

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Welcome to the .uk - Unless You’re Not in the UK

	By Michele Neylon MD of Blacknight Solutions
	June 10, 2014 Views: 11,244 Comments: 4

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The .uk launch today has been getting quite a bit of press coverage. Getting a big name celebrity like Stephen Fry to endorse the shorter namespace is also a nice win for Nominet.

As part of the PR around the launch they’ve also put out a big welcome sign near Heathrow airport (see embedded video below).

And they did register the domain and put up a minisite too.

It’a a bit ironic though as .uk isn’t exactly welcoming to non-UK individuals or companies.

While co.uk is “open” to anyone anywhere, the new .uk extension requires a UK address “for service” to be provided. So if you don’t have a UK address you’re not welcome.

Getting a UK address isn’t an issue for a big business, but it’s an obstacle for smaller companies.

By Michele Neylon, MD of Blacknight Solutions

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Comments

How is that ironic? Seems perfectly logical Jeremy Malcolm – Jun 10, 2014 6:59 PM

How is that ironic? Seems perfectly logical to me (and corresponds to the policy in other country registries).

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JeremyMost EU based ccTLDs do not impose Michele Neylon – Jun 10, 2014 7:06 PM

Jeremy Most EU based ccTLDs do not impose restrictions of this nature on domain name registrants. There are a few exceptions such as .de and .nl. But in the case of .nl, for example, the registry will provide the Netherlands address if it's required. Michele

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It's kind of sad John Levine – Jun 11, 2014 9:34 PM

that domain names have gotten so devalued that anyone would think it strange that .uk have a rule that the domain be used more or less for its intended purpose.

It doesn’t seem to have crippled .us too badly.

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Didn't .co.uk have a nexus requirement earlier Samit Madan – Jun 12, 2014 8:48 PM

Didn’t .co.uk have a nexus requirement earlier too?
Nexus didn’t really help .us though it does work(?) for .de / .fr / .nl
ccTLDs with substantial local populations / interest are going to out perform the expectations.

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