choice of domain name - com or co.uk...?

[joko]

does it matter?

i was under the impression that WWW meant worldwideweb....so any domain name could be viewed worldwide....

but just lately i have had a couple of people claiming that a co.uk is no good if you want people to be able to look at your site all over the world...?!

i understand that its pointless to be found in australia if you are a birmingham plumber - but this is for a bands offficial site...

can anyone tell me what the diffrence is? does it matter? will it affect anything?

cheers

[ChuckFickens]

"but just lately i have had a couple of people claiming that a co.uk is no good if you want people to be able to look at your site all over the world...?! "

Load of rubbish.

.co.uk meant to indicate that it's a UK based site, but there is nothing to stop anyone in the world registering a .co.uk and anyone in the world can view them.

It really makes little difference, but if you can why not register both the .co.uk and the .com and just make them both point to the same website.

[rojash]

If I'm doing a site for someone who only trades in the UK, I register both .com. and .co.uk and redirect the .com to the .co.uk, which is where I put the actual site. The fact that people are on a .co.uk site should at least give them an indication that the products/services are specifically aimed at the UK (For instance, the local plumber is not going to be of much interest to the rest of the world). It also means that anyone searching for a local service can select Pages from the UK in google.

On the other hand, if the service or product is aimed Internationally, I still register both .co.uk and .com, but I put the site on the .com domain, and redirect the .co.uk.

[ChuckFickens]

LOL....

I was about to come back and add pretty much exactly that ^ :)

[rojash]

I thought there was more knee room under my desk lately. Now I know why...

[rov1100]

I sometimes wish Google would separate the two. Many times I have done a general search for a product, taken interest, only to find the price is in $.

[ChuckFickens]

Use google.co.uk instead of google.com.

[Buenchico]

I agree with al of the above but, for a band's website, I'd probably go for '.info' anyway.

[chas2008]

as a personal choice when im 'surfing' looking for a product or service i always go for the co.uk. at least you know its in the UK..(hopefully) Nothing worse than spending time on a site to find out its in the states

[nitroxhotshot]

.com should be your first choice.
.co.uk is restricted to the UK and as chas2008 wrote.. that is completely wrong. Anyone can buy a .uk domain, even if they live in china, so .uk domain does not mean that you are buying from a UK based shop or company!