.co.uk & .ws worthless?!?!?

[NameAlot.com]

I'm curious to know the dnf communities thoughs and experiences with the .co.uk and the .ws extensions. They seem completely and utterly useless to me. There are so many good words and phrases still available for both names which means that demand for them is extremely low. Does any one here from Europe know if the .co.uk extension is in extensive use there? Is it like our .com in the United States? I know some of the major corps use it like yahoo.co.uk, but does the common users use it for there's sites and do domaineers develop them like a .com.

As for the .ws, why hasn't it faded away in oblivion yet? I understand that having a very good single .ws is still something good and valuable (sex.ws is still worth good money) But for 2-3 words that make sense, is it worth it i.e acceptcreditcard.ws (it's available by the way) or findloans.ws. Does anyone here invest a lot in .ws and/or care to comment on there experiences with the two extensions. Because IMHO I think they are as good as worthless when it comes to genereal usage.

 

[greggish]

I would not put .co.uk in the same category as .ws. There are many established sites using .co.uk, and its also a matter of expectations of the surfer. Most Brits expect to find good relevant websites still using .co.uk.

 

[nts]

I would not put .co.uk in the same category as .ws. There are many established sites using .co.uk, and its also a matter of expectations of the surfer. Most Brits expect to find good relevant websites still using .co.uk.

I agree, I think .co.uk is a pretty good extension. As for .ws I would agree with you on the fact that it's completly worthless. I know of absolutly no companies/websites that market .ws as their primary domain.

 

[StockDoctor]

Re: .ws I've seen many of these names sold wholesale in the high $xxx range. I've bot a few in the mid $xxx range as well myself. Of many of the ccTLDs out there, this is one that can make some generic sense (as website). When you're looking at these .ws names, you're not looking for url-bar typeins anways, but purely looking at the value of the keyword used in search. They also gain value depending on your area of focus. For example, being a Biker, Biker.ws looks pretty good to me. Imagine the price a Bond Trading firm would have to pay for Bonds.com versus Bonds.ws. You have to think that one among many others would garner a decent price. Also, a large number of tier 1 .ws generics were taken early by a company related to the registry, and you can lease some of those for $5k a month. Ask Tippy about his experiences.

I would add that I wouldn't pay up for some others such as .tv that only appears to make sense for "television" or .cc as in "credit cards". Bonds.tv or Bonds.cc just doesn't cut it.
Doc

 

[Wise]

.co.uk is very widely used here in the UK, most people here looking for specific info on items such as travel, mortgages, loans, etc.. will prefer to see a .co.uk extension to know it UK related, .com is often assumed as being US but its a Worldwide extension.

.ws on the other hand may not seen valuable now but it will be in time, its still got a lot of single keyword domains that will draw traffic, and of course once the other more popular extensions really dry up then moving on to .ws does not seem that outragous an idea, a lot is being placed on the WS meaning WebSite rather than Western Samoa, so we will see.

 

[Digital Address]

From Nominet.org.uk: Total registrations in the .uk database as of 31st August 2005: 4,349,206!

The .co.uk is much better than the .ws!

 

[MrDude]

Most companies here in UK use .co.uk i havent seen one .ws advertised, I would deffinately say .co.uk is better than .ws

 

[lukeeales]

Yeah, "your" extension is ".us".

.co.uk domains have sold for mid-5 figures ($) many times in the past. You cannot compare the unregistered domains in .co.uk to .ws - "There are so many good words and phrases still available for both names which means that demand for them is extremely low" - this is not true at all.

 

[Poker]

...the .co.uk and the .ws extensions. They seem completely and utterly useless to me.

Sounds like it's time to wake up avalon...and don't hit the snooze button

 

[Wise]

From Nominet.org.uk: Total registrations in the .uk database as of 31st August 2005: 4,349,206!

The .co.uk is much better than the .ws!

I dont agree totally, volume cant be used on its own as the reason for it being better.

.co.uk is better than .ws for UK websites, as a major industrialised country it gains more recognition for being solely related to the UK, .ws onthe other hand is more likely to be recoginsed as a global extension.

At the end of the day if you have a good keyword in any extension that is properly indexed at the best search engines then people will find it.

 

[Whois-Search]

Here in the UK you see .co.uk more than .com !

Take for example www.bbc.co.uk

and we even use www.google.co.uk

 

[StockDoctor]

GAG ORDER!

Anyone who makes a statement so naive as to say either .co.uk or .ws extensions are worthless, needs a demotion from "Domainer" to "Dom" and be relegated to just reading the forums here for the next year without comment. Sheesh!

 

[NameAlot.com]

GAG ORDER!

Anyone who makes a statement so naive as to say either .co.uk or .ws extensions are worthless, needs a demotion from "Domainer" to "Dom" and be relegated to just reading the forums here for the next year without comment. Sheesh!

lol.... Thanks for the comments. How many .ws do you own Stockdoctor??? My point exactly. As for the .co.uk... they are very useful as I have a great number of them in my portfolio. I wanted to get a feel for how the .co.uk extension faired in Europe compared to other extensions like the .com. My strentgh and knowledge is U.S based as it pertains to some of the more recognizable and used extensions in the U.S (.com, .net, .org, biz, etc) I appreciate the commetns from those coming from an abroad perspective.

I have another question: What percentage of the UK population do you think recognizes/uses .co.uk compared to a .com. This may be a difficult question to answer. If any one has any thoughts or can point to any studies of measure that have been made, that would be a great asset to the community.

p.s I still think .ws is a horrible extension short of sex.ws, loans.ws bonds.ws etc.. Just saying it is a mouthful let alone to place words in front of it.

Thanks everyone for the contribution however deep or shallow some comments may have been.

 

[StockDoctor]

lol.... How many .ws do you own Stockdoctor??? My point exactly.
p.s I still think .ws is a horrible extension short of sex.ws, loans.ws bonds.ws etc.. Just saying it is a mouthful let alone to place words in front of it.

Don't know what you're alluding to, but to answer your question, I personally own about 1 .ws name for every 1000 other names in my portfolio. (mostly com) I have an interest in another 10 .ws per 1000 names owned via a partnership. The .ws ext represents the smallest part of my focus among extensions owned, but even with that I find it hard to not address flawed logic. People shouldn't make blanket statements saying something is "worthless" or "horrible" without some kindof expressed reasoning. Comes across to me just as misplaced as saying .com is "worthless" without explanation. If you can reg these names and make a profit, where is your head on that label? I would challenge you to show me some of these "good" words available to reg in the .co.uk or .ws namespaces. To me, "good" keywords mean a 1 word name that has a minimum Overture score w/o extension of 20,000.

Of course I could be all wrong here and you have some secret way of finding these elusive "good" .co.uk or .ws names that I've missed.
Doc

 

[NameAlot.com]

People shouldn't make blanket statements saying something is "worthless" or "horrible" without some kindof expressed reasoning. Comes across to me just as misplaced as saying .com is "worthless" without explanation.

I felt like I made my my reasonings clear in the first post. But if not then I apologize. I was questioning the futility in registering words/phrases that would be "solid and good" combinations in other extensions but worthless in .ws extensions. If I can't register something like carrentals.ws and get decnt results then to me that extension is worthless other then to use for major single words. That's my opinion on that. You can disagree.

If you can reg these names and make a profit, where is your head on that label? I would challenge you to show me some of these "good" words available to reg in the .co.uk or .ws namespaces. To me, "good" keywords mean a 1 word name that has a minimum Overture score w/o extension of 20,000.

.co.uk still has a lot of good phrases left. I'm sure you know how to search for them yourself.:approve: I do agree with your definition of "good" here as it pertains to domain names, but I feel like .ws and other futile extensions succeed ONLY under that guide. Without the top few words... the extension is WORTHLESS!!!

Of course I could be all wrong here and you have some secret way of finding these elusive "good" .co.uk or .ws names that I've missed.
Doc

Sarcasm???:smartass:

 

[jelly]

I get UK type-in traffic on my .co.uk names if that's what you meant...like "do people in the UK actually type in .co.uk names like everyone does with .com's"

Never owned a .ws.

 

[StockDoctor]

I felt like I made my my reasonings clear in the first post. But if not then I apologize. I was questioning the futility in registering words/phrases that would be "solid and good" combinations in other extensions but worthless in .ws extensions. If I can't register something like carrentals.ws and get decnt results then to me that extension is worthless other then to use for major single words. That's my opinion on that. You can disagree.

I guess I question your definition of "solid and good". Using the example you gave (carrentals) if you mean url-bar typein value, then pretty much the only extensions that would be "solid and good" would be .com, .co.uk or .de etc. and not "other extensions" such as info, biz, us. If you mean "solid and good" as far as search goes, then carrentals.ws could qualify as much as .com (or other extensions) and car-rentals.ws even more so as it makes it easier to parse the keyword string and sometimes avoid extra clicks such as Googles "did you mean?". This may result in better search revenue results. If you mean "solid and good" as to the domainer reseller market and their recognizance of the fundamentals stressed above, then you may have a point, but that doesn't make you or them right and more domainers are becomming much more savvy to these issues and not following the crowd, but leading them. By the way, do you own carrentals.ws? It appears to be a working website that someone has spent some time with. Evidently that owner doesn't feel it's "worthless", or why would he have paid the renewals and hosting for it over the last 3 years?

.co.uk still has a lot of good phrases left. I'm sure you know how to search for them yourself.:approve: I do agree with your definition of "good" here as it pertains to domain names, but I feel like .ws and other futile extensions succeed ONLY under that guide. Without the top few words... the extension is WORTHLESS!!!

There you go again with those labels like "futile" without explanation. Futile in what regards? How can you label an entire extension as "futile"? There has been a lot of money made in the trading of these .ws names and there are many .ws websites that are very successful in generating revenue. At that point, the importance of which extension is used becomes less important, and value goes to a multiple of earnings. At that point your "futile" or "worthless" statements don't make any sense.

As far as finding these "good words" in .ws, I do know how to search for them, but you're the one who said there are many of these available. I challenged you to show me these as I can't seem to find them. They appear to have been regged previously. Since you've uncovered some and find them as "worthless" please go ahead and post them here and lets see how long they last.

 

[NameAlot.com]

There you go again with those labels like "futile" without explanation. Futile in what regards? How can you label an entire extension as "futile"? There has been a lot of money made in the trading of these .ws names and there are many .ws websites that are very successful in generating revenue. At that point, the importance of which extension is used becomes less important, and value goes to a multiple of earnings. At that point your "futile" or "worthless" statements don't make any sense.

As far as finding these "good words" in .ws, I do know how to search for them, but you're the one who said there are many of these available. I challenged you to show me these as I can't seem to find them. They appear to have been regged previously. Since you've uncovered some and find them as "worthless" please go ahead and post them here and lets see how long they last.

I see you point stocdoctor. Thanks for your comments. It's highly appreciated.

 

[GT Web]

.cc is worthless

now what are you gonna do :-D

 

[Mr.Domains]

Is it like our .com in the United States?

No, ".co.uk" is worth MUCH more than your extension, ".us". :cheeky:

You can't really put ".co.uk" in the same boat as ".ws"...