WebHostTalk.eu Web Hosting Forums Unveil Results From .EU Domain Name Survey

HostReview.com
Friday, July 7, 2006; 04:23 AM

The European web hosting forums WebHostTalk.eu unveiled a survey on .EU domain extensions. According to the survey, most of the 3 or 4 letter .EU domain names have already been registered and those website owners who want to register a new name for their sites need to bargain for those extensions in the domain auctions web sites.

Most short .EU domains are still in "sunrise" pending period, or are not available for registration. Those who are in pending status is unlikely to be released for free registration. Domain names such as sex.eu, cars.eu, fun.eu and etc. are capped or already lead to active web sites.

With 2 million dot-EU domains registered however there are only a small number of websites that are active under .EU extension and promote the extension under their own brand. The short and "nice looking" .EU domains that point attention to web hosting are already registered but most of them are not in use.

A short survey over the ownership of web hosting related .EU names, conducted from European web hosting forums WebHostTalk.eu shows that most of those domains are registered as a dot-com assets that will be offered from domain brokers. Domains such as webhosts.eu (capped by sedo.de) and allwebhosting.eu lead to door pages used for traffic distribution.

There are however still a vacant domains such as findwebdesigner.eu, travelaccross.eu, vacationandtravel.eu, germanwebhost.eu, onewebhost.eu, hostingcon.eu, dewebhost.eu, search4hosts.eu, hostsinfo.eu and a lot more that are available for registration. The WebHostTalk.eu analysis shows that most of those will also become a part of the domain auction sellers' porfolio.

"Having most of the popular names inactive or used for different forms of traffic exchnage and strongly for web marketing purposes don't help the do-eu market to grow" said Dimitar Avramov, a leading moderator at WHT-EU. The WebHostTalk.eu forums encourage the website owners to register dot-EU domains and to use them for ecommerce purposes. 2 million .EU domain names have been registered since the European domains has been release for public registration.

The main purpose of the EU Domain launch is to promote the identity of European Union, European brands and the single market. Most businesses however still prefer to stay behind the national borders where most of them are vindicated by econimc protectionism promoted by the national governments and trade unions.

The WHT-EU discussion board has recently launched a daily European web hoting news service. It is published with partnership with EuroHostDir.com.

The WebHostTalk.eu forums feature 6 different European sections. The website owners can participate to one of the following European hosting forums -- "General web Hosting", "Tech, Security and programming", "Domain names", "Non-Tech Web Hosting", "Server Talk", "Colocation and Datacenters", "Domain Chat" and marketing talk. Members are also allowed to talk about American, Australian and other continental hosting issues.

The European Forums claim they set some innovative rules for the web hosting industry. Members that have good posting history are entitled to free advertising through 468x60 banners at the bottom of the forums. They are also allowed to post offers in advertising sections on daily basis. WebHostTalk.eu however requires a 50 other members to feature their offers after the last one posted by anyone.

The WebHostTalk.eu is owned and moderated under agreement signed by group of webmasters with significant experience in the web hosting market. The forum announced in its open press release it would not accept advertisers until September. The moderators say they want to create a real professional community before start featuring ads.