.uk Today, I died a little inside

[jdab]

Why you ask?

Well, as I'm sure you're all aware, the .uk domain opened up to the public today.

I was just browsing my registrar, and noticed the big heading so thought I'd take a punt and see if any were available.

First, I typed in jd.uk, and it said Available!. As you can guess, I was pretty chuffed. So I thought to myself, what else may be available? I typed in News.uk - guess what? Available! I couldn't believe my luck! I also searched for blog.uk, and that too was Available!. I proceeded to checkout and it came to a grand total of $22.74 - I felt I'd just hit the jackpot.

Proceeded to checkout, made the payment and all went through - my smile was from ear to ear and I was bragging to everyone in the office. The page took a little longer to load up than normal, and it got me worried. However, the receipt confirmation popped up and declared my spend. At this point I'm geeking out and going a little nuts. Then the page refreshed. FAILED FAILED FAILED. ALL THREE OF THEM!

So it turns out, I completely noobed out and forgot that the domains were reserved for the owners of the .co.uk/.org.uk versions. Then I slumped away into the corner of the office and wept.

So how was your day?

 

[ezcoms]

I'm still upset about the registrar of my choosing played the "It's available game."

 

[jdab]

I found http://www.dotuklaunch.uk/what-uk handy for checking if the domain is available.

 

[jdab]

It's odd how the domains mentioned in the OP still haven't been picked up by their 'rightful owners' - they're only small change.

 

[Dave]

It's odd how the domains mentioned in the OP still haven't been picked up by their 'rightful owners' - they're only small change.

Because they still have nearly 5 years to do so. If they pick up their domains now they are paying double the renewal fee for 5 years, whereas if they just leave them there for 5 years they have no renewal fee until then.

Imagine one has 100 .co.uk domains at say DomainMonster, with renewal costing £6 a year say, that's £600 a year over 5 years for .co.uk, which is £3000. Why add an extra £3000 in renewal costs for the .uk when you don't have to?

 

[amoymaller]

If Co. UK registered by others Then his master will have priority to register the UK