BBC News Online: Sci/Tech

Me, my web and I

Plans to expand the UK's net domains have been approved

Anyone who wants a .uk web domain for themselves will soon be able to apply for one ending in .me.uk.

Before now, the .uk name space has been largely used by organisations such as companies, schools and police forces rather than individuals.

An overwhelming majority of the companies who decide how the UK's domain space should be run have voted in favour of adopting the new net name.

Personal space

The .me.uk domain is the first to be added to the UK's net name space since 1996 when Nominet, the guardian of the .uk domain, was set up.

Dr Willie Black, managing director of Nominet UK, said: "This marks an important step forward in the way people express themselves on the web."

If someone called John Smith successfully applied for one of the new names, he would get one of the form johnsmith.me.uk.

In an attempt to discourage speculators, the usual £5 registration fee has been increased to £50.

Anyone buying a .uk domain name will typically pay much more than this basic fee because registrars add-on all manner of services which include e-mail forwarding and filtering, website hosting and so on.

This will gradually be lowered over the coming months until July when it will reach the standard level of £5 per domain.

Like all domains .me.uk names have to be renewed every two years.

Many of the organisations that resell the .uk domains are members of Nominet and can use their voting rights to determine how the name space should develop.