Why do UK websites end with " .co.uk " and not just " .uk " or " .com.uk " ?
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M$6 Answers
My understanding is that in the early days of the web, lots of things revolved around US preferences, and that top level domains (TLDs) were called .com, .gov, .edu and so on with a presumption that USA didn't need to be spelled out. Every other country uses a two-letter id after the utilitarian part: .fr, .cn, .ru, ....
If things had been organised with an international focus, US domains might have ended with .com.usa, .gov.usa and so on. And in fact, .us has been the ICCtld for the US since 1985. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.us According to that standard, US domains could (or should) have adopted the new extension. But, as the 900 lb. gorilla of commerce and standards (pace adoption of metric standards, paper sizes, etc), the US does what it wants, regardless of what the rest of the world agrees.
So part of the reason UK domains end in .uk is because country codes other than for the US were developed *after* the top-level domains for commerce, education and gov't had been set out (with a US preference).
Somehow, when the domains were internationalised, .com became .co, and other categories were added. Why .com became .co is a mystery to me, but it may have just been a way of shortening the URL. Take one character away, add three more. Three steps forward, one step back. Who knows?
An example of other non-US centric categories is the designation for academic websites. In the US they end with .edu (education), but British academic sites end with .ac (academic community). Things like that have been added over time, bolted on to the original layout.
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M$
For every sort of website they have a .something.uk domain.
* .ac.uk - academic (tertiary education and research establishments) and learned societies.
* .co.uk - commercial/general
* .gov.uk - government (central and local)
* .ltd.uk - limited companies
* .me.uk - personal
* .mod.uk - Ministry of Defence and HM Forces public sites
* .net.uk - ISPs and network companies
* .nic.uk - network use only
* .nhs.uk - National Health Service institutions
* .org.uk - non-profit organisations
* .plc.uk - public limited companies
* .police.uk - police forces
* .sch.uk - local education authorities, schools, primary and secondary education, community education
In otherwords, It might as well have been .com.uk or just .uk but the higher powers decided .co.uk is quicker to type then .com.uk (or something like that)
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$The original 7 TLDs were all three-letter suffixes, and I suspect .com was used instead of .co simply for symmetry, although I don't have any supporting evidence for that assertion.
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M$Full list towards the bottom of here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain
Amusingly the uk domain is an exception. gb was initially available (no longer). co is actually Columbia's country top-level domain.
More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.gb and if you're really interested deeper explanations through the "Domain Name System" link.
Cheers
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Companies: .co.uk - open to all
Organisations: .org.uk - open to all
Government: .gov.uk - only used by the government
Universities: .ac.uk - only available to higher education
Schools: .sch.uk - only available to schools
Limited Companies: .ltd.uk - open to all
And various others, to make a total of 6 million .uk names. Unlike some other countries the UK registrar decided not to make the top level .uk domains open to all, but created a second tier. Also companies were given .co.uk rather than .com.uk that you might expect from some other countries.
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M$
