.EU

Worst domain extension will soon launch

EURid announced that it will soon launch a new extension that is probably the worst extension ever created.

They think that they are launching .eu in Greek (.ευ). But what they are really launching is probably the worst extension ever. Yes, probably worse than .horse or .onl.

And it is the worst extension ever because while ‘eu’ are the initials of the European Union, ‘ευ’ is simply 2 letters that look similar to ‘eu’. If they wanted to create an extension that Greeks would understand thry should have translated “European Union” to “Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση” and created .εε instead of .ευ.

People in Greece barely ever use .eu domains (except for when they are free for the first year, then they drop the domain and use a new free domain). They are never going to use an IDN ccTLD.

And .eu was not a real ccTLD in the first place. There is no EU country. All countries in the EU have and use they own ccTLDs.

Everybody in Greece knows and uses .gr domain names. And Greece already has its own IDN ccTLD .ελ that no ones knows or cares about.

BTW ‘ευ’ has a completely different meaning in Greek on its own that confuses things even further.

EURid (European Registry for Internet Domains) is the non-profit organisation appointed by the European Commission as the domain name registry that operates the .eu top-level domain and its variants. EURid currently manages the .eu and .ею (.eu in Cyrillic) extensions.

So EURid is simply wasting European funds to launch this useless extension no one wants and no one will ever use.

So EURid said in an announcement that “On 16 November 2009 the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process was launched and as of that date eligible countries and territories were able to request their respective IDN ccTLD(s) through the process.”

It is the first time I see a “Fast Track Process” take 10 years! But I guess that is just the hard working European Community organizations.

EURid will now start the IANA delegation process for .ευ. The launch date of the .ευ is planned for 14 November 2019.

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

10 comments

  1. What is the completely different meaning in Greek for .ευ?
    If it ends up meaning something good, such as sex, or TV, or something, it makes a difference to an extent.

    So, tell us the meaning.

  2. Was reading back through research on the fiasco of the .EU launch. There was a mention of an IDN ccTLD being launched back then but they could not get support from ICANN to get it in the root. Still though, the .EU is a bit of a disaster for the European Union as most people use their ccTLD or .COM moreso than the .EU. Percenage wise, it is less than 5% of the domain foot prints of most EU countries. Not sure that an IDN version is going to make a difference.

  3. As External Relations manager of EURid, I would like to follow up on a couple of points of your article:
    – EURid does not receive any fund from the European Union.
    – EURid is the registry operator of the .eu TLD in Latin and possible variants in other strings. The decision about the kind of variants in other strings is made by the European Commission.

    • Konstantinos Zournas

      You are receiving all the registration/renewal fees of .eu and other strings.

      • That is correct, but by contract we work at cost and the rest goes to the EU budget every year.
        in any case your article mentioned “European funds” that – in the EU environment – is something completely different.

      • Konstantinos Zournas

        Working “at cost” is a big discussion.

  4. Stopped reading after the third typo in the first two paragraphs.

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