As of Tuesday 9th September, .London domain names will again be available for registration. The names will be available on a first come, first served basis. Businesses in the UK will be able to apply for a website domain that ends in .London rather than .com or .co.uk.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the UK capital to use .London web domain name last year, making it one of the first cities globally to have its own domain name.
In the last twelve months, ICANN has approved over 600 new TLDs (top level domains), roughly sorting them into four different categories: cities, brands, international domains that contain Latin scripts such as Arabic, and a whole host of generic top level domains (gTLDs) such as .photography and .dating.
Advocates claim that the new domains will benefit businesses, especially as combinations that were previously filled can now be used by a new business. For example, a photography shop in London could now poach a very valuable photography.london address, whereas before photography.com and photography.co.uk may have been taken.
Stuart Fuller, director of commercial operations at NetNames, said: "The general availability of the .London domain name will help maintain the city’s position at the forefront of the global digital economy. A .London web address gives businesses the opportunity to take advantage of the capital’s powerful ‘brand’, something that many luxury and beauty labels, such as Rimmel London, have been doing for years.
"The .London suffix is now available to all on a first come, first served basis. Businesses looking to capitalise on London’s international brand power and strengthen their internet presence will therefore need to act quickly in order to secure the domain names of their choice."
