The .UK revolution

[super-whois]

Just use a tool to find the top 20,000 UK websites or something and check those for any changes.

Just check what's in the various top domain files, there will be some incorrect data, but the domains are more mainstream.

Using some old files:

$ grep '^[^\.]*.uk$' alexa-top-1m.csv | head
2937,unblockpirate.uk
7706,eplsite.uk
11094,soccerlive.uk
14343,bl.uk
19619,parliament.uk
22375,kidsflix.uk
30800,mod.uk
32204,steamid.uk
34419,totalsportek.uk
42298,hsbc.uk

$ grep '^[^\.]*.uk,' majestic_million.csv | head
21921,608,friendsoftheearth.uk,uk,4144,5507,friendsoftheearth.uk,uk,22103,613,4135,5487
24331,678,easily.uk,uk,3870,5120,easily.uk,uk,24427,681,3869,5125
35358,1085,gov.uk,uk,3095,3961,gov.uk,uk,36581,1123,3043,3881
51561,1521,osws.uk,uk,2519,3270,osws.uk,uk,50556,1501,2547,3299
58746,1691,fashionunited.uk,uk,2355,2984,fashionunited.uk,uk,54008,1584,2462,3111
71303,1982,cancelme.uk,uk,2146,2743,cancelme.uk,uk,71089,1989,2150,2733
74125,2061,awanshost.uk,uk,2111,2576,awanshost.uk,uk,73793,2058,2116,2573
89270,2430,dbang.uk,uk,1932,2536,dbang.uk,uk,90175,2468,1923,2529
93954,2549,foreversun.uk,uk,1886,2208,foreversun.uk,uk,93773,2541,1887,2208
95022,2568,gglink.uk,uk,1876,2258,gglink.uk,uk,94975,2572,1876,2259


$ grep '^[^\.]*.uk"' top10milliondomains.csv | head
"127","gov.uk","8.13"
"935","nhs.uk","7.43"
"1175","parliament.uk","7.33"
"1231","bl.uk","7.31"
"9948","mod.uk","6.81"
"12623","royal.uk","6.74"
"17632","transitcenter.uk","6.67"
"20293","mssoc.uk","6.67"
"20294","warminstertownfc.uk","6.67"
"36443","ticketweb.uk","6.53"

$ cat umbrella-top-1m.csv | grep '^[^\.]*\.uk.$' | head
52218,jpimedia.uk
69114,royal.uk
92053,zpbt.uk
102172,netweaver.uk
105952,bl.uk
107826,mod.uk
108874,yummly.uk
111204,abaresearch.uk
115530,parliament.uk
116583,nic.uk

Yes, some of these never switched to .uk, as they've always been using .uk, so should be excluded.

 

[jmcc]

So it looks like two possible questions. The first is which UK websites have switched to .UK as their primary site. The second is which sites are redirecting to a .UK site.

The first is going to be very tricky to answer without a baseline survey. The second could be answered with a full survey of the remaining non .UK websites. The 01 July 2019 zone had 9,243,800 non .UK domain names (if I'm reading this right on zero mugs of coffee). Of these, approximately 8,084,856 had websites. This figure will drop as the DNS responses for each of the websites are checked. Some can be immediately excluded from the survey due to the host being a parking host or the IP address being invalid. The process generates a set of candidate sites for surveying. This survey would provide a baseline to check which domain names subsequently switch to .UK as their primary site but it would require other surveys to track the changes.

Regards...jmcc

 

[super-whois]

Over the last fortnight, .uk registrations have increased by an average of 751 per day, whilst .co.uk has decreased by an average of 1632 per day. If the trend continues, then the number of .uk registrations will overtake .co.uk in around 6 years. I suspect the trend will accelerate, and .co.uk will be history before then.

 

[Murray]

Over the last fortnight, .uk registrations have increased by an average of 751 per day, whilst .co.uk has decreased by an average of 1632 per day.

I expect it's people just hoovering up any .uks of interest, probably wont last but we shall see

 

[jmcc]

Over the last fortnight, .uk registrations have increased by an average of 751 per day, whilst .co.uk has decreased by an average of 1632 per day. If the trend continues, then the number of .uk registrations will overtake .co.uk in around 6 years. I suspect the trend will accelerate, and .co.uk will be history before then.

What you are seeing is a classic domain name land rush. There's a spike in registrations as a TLD goes into general availability and people start registering domain names. Within a few months (between four and six months), the number of new registrations per month declines to a typical new registrations pattern for the TLD. I graphed the .ASIA land rush to show a typical land rush and what follows. (Not sure about posting the link to it.) The land rush lasted from April 2008 to September 2008 and then the new registrations fell to the normal levels. The echoes of the land rush could be seen for years afterwards with a spike in deletions around the land rush anniversary. The .EU was even more pronounced and the echoes of the .EU land rush (April 2006 to June 2006) was even worse and visible for over ten years since land rush. The .EU is an abnormal ccTLD in that it doesn't represent an actual country and some of the member countries were only allowed to legally register domain names in the ccTLD a year or so after the land rush.

With a typical land rush, a Junk Dump follows on the anniversary of the land rush. This is where many of the domain names that could not be sold or developed are dropped. Some of the registrar land grabs (protecting their customers etc) will amplify that effect on particular registrars during the Junk dump next year.

The .CO.UK has separate dynamics and there is a fall off in registrations between April and September with many mature TLDs. However, it has a momentum of its own that is quite separate to the .UK subdomain and it is the first choice TLD for new UK registrations. The redirects for .UK from the survey that I posted earlier are a good indication of how the market is reacting to the .UK launch. Most of the exact match redirects are to the equivalent .CO.UK domain name. If there was a shift to .UK as the primary subdomain in the ccTLD then what one would see is an increase in .CO.UK websites redirecting to the equivalent .UK site. There is a lot of brand protection registration activity in .UK and this is exactly what happens with a new TLD that is considered important by registrants in a market. The .CO.UK is likely to dominate the UK market for the next few years at least.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Murray]

Anyone had an uptick in .co.uk interest since .uk release?

I don't know if it's coincidence but I've had 4 offers in July for co.uks and 2 sales, which for me (sadly) is marked improvement

 

[cloud]

I was just driving on the motorway and saw that a haulage company is using .UK and is redirecting the .CO.UK to .UK --> https://owensgroup.uk

It's plastered all over their trucks which is nice.

 

[lazarus]

I was just driving on the motorway and saw that a haulage company is using .UK and is redirecting the .CO.UK to .UK --> https://owensgroup.uk

It's plastered all over their trucks which is nice.

Large company with £70 Million turnover

 

[3gmedia]

I was just driving on the motorway and saw that a haulage company is using .UK and is redirecting the .CO.UK to .UK --> https://owensgroup.uk

It's plastered all over their trucks which is nice.

Thats great, i've met their marketing guy Julian a couple of times, his marketing company website is Brand.wales

 

[cloud]

Large company with £70 Million turnover

Then it'll make a great addition to the https://switchedto.uk .UK propaganda website...

 

[3gmedia]

Then it'll make a great addition to the https://switchedto.uk .UK propaganda website...

View attachment 2445

I see you haven't added BL.uk to the list yet .

 

[cloud]

I see you haven't added BL.uk to the list yet .

Done! Whilst it hasn't technically switched because it predates the .UK free for all, it's still a notable one.

 

[jmcc]

BL.uk is the British Library and it is one of the oldest domain names in the ccTLD.

I've run a complete survey on the rest of the .UK ccTLD. The data is being crunched and I should have some figures on redirects from other subdomains to .UK sites in the next few days.

Regards...jmcc

 

[martin-s]

https://nationalparks.uk/

 

[jmcc]

I know you joke about the fact I called it propaganda but I refer to things like having gay.uk on there despite that not having transferred yet. Then a bunch of irrelevant sites being used as fillers because you can only find an extremely small handful of sites that push your point.

Historically, it is the small sites that change that make the difference for a new TLD. With large brand name sites, the extension is invisible to most users because they associate it with a brand. This means that people think of Google rather than the .co.uk. When the small sites begin to change en masse, this is a good thing for a new TLD. Though attempts to publicise sites that are switching may be jokingly referred to as propaganda, this kind of activity is extremely important for a new TLD because the sites and people publicising this information are promoting the TLD (or .UK). It would be far more worrying if this kind of activity was absent as it was for the launch of most of the new gTLDs.

Regards...jmcc

 

[diablo]

Done! Whilst it hasn't technically switched because it predates the .UK free for all, it's still a notable one.

It's notable only in the sense that it has always used .uk. "Not technically switched" really mreans "it hasn't switched".

I think it's wrong to include sites that have used .uk for years on a site dedicated to sites that have supposedly abandoned .co.uk in favour of the .uk.

 

[jmcc]

Just looking at some of the redirects being processed now. There are .UK redirects from .co.uk, .org.uk and .me.uk sites but the volume is, at the moment, quite low.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

Approximately 50% of locations processed. 2,562 sites redirecting to the equivalent .UK site (same domain name stub). Haven't checked the redirects to non-equivalent .UK sites yet.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

From the latest data crunch on all the non .UK .UK domain names:
6,550 domain names redirecting to their .UK equivalent.
10.91% of redirects are to the HTTPS version of the site.
17.42% No site/no site response.
9.33% Not found/forbidden etc.
11.47% Holding pages.
2.94% Internal site redirects.
12.75% PPC
1.44% Sales

The active % is 21.54% but the real processing has not begun on this set.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Domaintial]

welcometothe.uk
https://web.archive.org/web/20140716184920/http://welcometothe.uk/

Wow... uploaded in 2014... only 344 views... talk about not "getting" how to build awareness online!