14 DAY TRIAL // Scotland’s independence vote may not have gone how the government and the “Yes” camp wanted it to go, but the country is getting the chance to take a step back from the United Kingdom on the Internet. The .scot domain was launched on Tuesday.
The new domain offers Scottish people and businesses a chance to get even more geographically accurate with its very own domain that can be assigned to their sites. Instead of having their sites on .co.uk or .uk, Scots can enjoy the new domain.
Since the announcement about the new domain group was made back in July, which includes .scot, there’s been a lot of interest from Scotland. In fact, the competing camps for the referendum, Yes Scotland and Better Together, as well as NHS Scotland and the local government were the first to register their trademark.
As the domain opens up to the world, businesses and individuals wanted to get their own sites. One-year registration costs between £20 ($32.8 / €25.6) and £25 ($41 / €32) on average.
A lot of interest for .scot
“We’ve seen strong interest from many sectors. But it’s not just about the businesses – international and local – it’s about individuals and I’m hearing lots of individuals are getting involved which ties in with the whole ethos of the web being for everyone,” said Gavin McCutcheon, director of the Dot Scot Registrar.
He added that the recent referendum has definitely helped things along, with thousands of sign-ups already taking place. “People on both sides are now wanting to express their Scottish identity more and I think it’s going to be really exciting to see what is registered tomorrow and then what websites go live quickly.”
The Scottish Finance Secretary believes that the new .scot domain names will give people at home and abroad the opportunity to express their identity and affinity online. As for the government’s site, it’s going to take a few months before the .scot domain is adopted as the primary web address.
There are 37 approved domain registrars where the .scot domains can be bought from, including GoDaddy, Whois Networks, Secura, EuroDNS, Calico and Easyspace.
The .scot domains put the country on parity with the likes of Wales, London, Berlin and even New York City. It should be interesting to see how the adoption rate evolves over the next few weeks, although it’s probably safe to say that the first few days will be the most active as people and businesses clamor to get their hands on their own domains before someone else grabs it.