Does England need its own internet domain?

Sam · Feb 20, 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26171143

Tippers, a chain of builders merchants based in the Midlands, now has a website with the .plumbers suffix.

E-commerce manager Allan Akers said the firm's previous addresses had been "rather cumbersome and hard to remember". (tippersbm co uk)

The new address, he hopes, will raise the company's profile and boost trade.

Nice how the bbc dont even get the extension right lol we dont have a .plumbers extension its .plumbing they must so proud

foz · Feb 20, 2014

tippers.plumbing goes to plumbingplace.co.uk

Not to worry

Brassneck · Feb 20, 2014

I've seen Edwin and others quote some stats on number of registrations so far for different extensions. Does anybody have a link to these?

Thanks
Stephen.

foz · Feb 20, 2014

Brassneck said:
I've seen Edwin and others quote some stats on number of registrations so far for different extensions. Does anybody have a link to these?

http://registrarstats.com/TLDDomainCounts.aspx

Brassneck · Feb 20, 2014

foz said:
http://registrarstats.com/TLDDomainCounts.aspx

Thanks.

Edwin · Feb 20, 2014

foz said:
http://registrarstats.com/TLDDomainCounts.aspx

The most telling stat is the day by day increase. Unfortunately I've not been recording the numbers, but if you revisit the link daily you'll get an idea of just how slowly they're increasing.

jasman · Feb 20, 2014

Those stats are interesting if you look at the individual tld histories.

.xxx has fared better than most of the new tlds (if registrations at launch are anything to go by) and has been around for a couple of years now. Judging by its history it looks like 100,000 of the best names were snapped up immediately, but since then there has been sod all growth. I imagine many of those registered were protective registrations of the same string as established .com domains and the rest probably 1 or 2 word combos. I suspect once all the really good names have gone, there's little hope for growth, because rather than register a second-rate domain in a new tld (second rate tld), people would rather look for another new tld to have a shot at a decent 1 or 2 word domain or just go for a 3rd rate .com.

.photography seems to be growing rapidly at the moment. That tld just seems way too long and clunky to me.

mat · Feb 20, 2014

Shows the confusion of new gTLDs when BBC put ".plumbers" instead of ".plumbing" in article.

TinkyWinky · Feb 20, 2014

Very interesting... got to laugh at :

TATTOO 0 0 0 0 0 98
SEXY 0 0 0 0 0 95
DIAMONDS 0 0 0 0 0 91
MENU 0 0 0 0 0 74
RUHR 0 0 0 0 0 51
CAREERS 0 0 0 0 0 15
BOUTIQUE 0 0 0 0 0 15
BARGAINS 0 0 0 0 0 11
WATCH 0 0 0 0 0 11
TIENDA 0 0 0 0 0 10

Going to take a very long time to recoup the losses on those!! Or am I missing something?

TW

Edwin · Feb 20, 2014

They're not yet generally available - those are super-premium registrations (the price drops down from the stratosphere over the course of a week)

namealot · Feb 20, 2014

I think numbers registered can be misleading isn’t it more a matter of who use’s the extensions e.g. over 50% of all uk online sales are by companies with over 1000 employees how many companies is that 100, 1000 10000

Think of it if enough of those 1000 plus employee companies that are pissed of with G power there ppc etc get together they could even start there own search engine with just there results ? if they did how many would follow suit ? doubt it would happen but stranger things have ?

bensd · Feb 20, 2014

tippersplumbing.co.uk currently ftr

retired_member34 · Feb 20, 2014

If I type tippers.plumbing into the URL bar in Safari or Chrome on my iPhone, it assumes it is not a URL, but a search query! I can't find a way of actually of accessing such an address.

Edwin · Feb 20, 2014

GeoMal said:
If I type tippers.plumbing into the URL bar in Safari or Chrome on my iPhone, it assumes it is not a URL, but a search query! I can't find a way of actually of accessing such an address.

Yes, that's just one of the many many things that "breaks" when the new GTLD are involved. Over time, these problems are no doubt going to start to get fixed, but it's like starting a race with your shoelaces knotted firmly together.

Edwin · Feb 20, 2014

Also worth considering the point made in this article. Short summary: domainers are buying all the new GTLD - but where does that leave end users?
http://www.domaininvesting.com/domain-investors-buy-good-gtld-domain-names/

That was entirely predictable since it's happened at every GTLD (and key CCTLD) rollout for the last decade or more. The net result is there's nobody actually using any of the things, therefore no traction, therefore no demand, therefore no aftermarket. Cue a giant sucking sound like bathwater running down the plughole...