Individual Internet domain names - names like
company.co.uk or company.com - form the
basis of e-mail and web addresses that distinguish firms
that are serious and businesslike about the Internet.
The obvious way to set up an Internet presence economically
has always been to make do with the facilities that come as
part of the deal with your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
These deals give you addresses like
yourname.demon.co.uk.
The drawbacks of this are clear. First, it gives an
amateurish impression. Secondly, your identity is blurred
with that of your ISP; will people remember you, or
remember Demon? Thirdly (and most importantly for most
people) you are effectively locking yourself in to that
ISP; if you move your hosting, you have to change your web
address. If you want to change to a more efficient, more
reliable or cheaper ISP you have to start from scratch in
publicising your new e-mail and web site addresses. The
longer you use the ISP-based addresses and the more widely
you have promoted them, the worse this problem becomes.
So: why not register yourcompany.co.uk? The costs are low,
and it is technically a trivial matter to connect a
registered address to the web site space and e-mail
mailboxes that you get with your ISP account. But most ISPs
won´t do it. First, they´ll insist that you buy expensive
`commercial´ web space to connect your address to. Then,
they charge you non-trivial amounts annually to do the
connecting - typically £100 a year for both web and e-mail
addresses.
3uk.com does it for free.
