On 10 June 2014, Nominet (the organisation that manages UK domain names) made .uk domain names available for the first time – alongside .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk and so on. Nominet reserved over 10 million .uk domains for existing domain name holders. This means that, for example, as we held the registration of ‘obrienmedia.co.uk’ prior to 10th June 2014, Nominet reserved the right of registering ‘obrienmedia.uk’, up to the 10th June 2019.
We subsequently registered obrienmedia.uk and you can access our website using that address in addition to the obrienmedia.co.uk address.
- If you want to register the shorter .uk version of your UK current domain, get in touch and we’ll register the domain name for you (subject to your right to the domain name).
- If you think you may want to register the .uk version of your current UK domain at a later date – you can do this any time between now and 10 June 2019 – simply ensure that you maintain your current UK domain name registration to ensure that you retain your rights to the shorter .uk domain name.
It’s important to note that if you registered a UK domain name after the 10th June 2014 the .uk version of the name is not reserved and can be registered by anyone so it’s important to register your .uk domain name if you think you might want to use it in the future (or if you want to prevent someone else from registering it)
Whether or not you choose to register the .uk version has no effect on your current UK domain, which will remain yours for as long as you choose to maintain your registration.