The very first .eu domain has gone live on the web today - but don't get your cheque books out yet - this is the registration organisation itself - EURid at www.eurid.eu - which is responsible for managing the new European top level domain name.
Nevertheless, a significant milestone has been passed with the first .eu ever to function thanks to ICANN placing .eu in the web root directory!
Registrations of .eu domain names will be possible before the end of 2005 - with the registration agreement for registrars being published in all the languages of the EU before the end of May. However, there is a four month sunrise period to enable governments and priority organisations to organise their .eu domain names - so in reality .eu will only be open to all in 2006.
Should you buy a .eu domain name? Our advice is, if you operate in several EU countries - do! It may keep your domain name costs under control, protect your trademarks and mean that you are geographically located in the EU - and that means you should feature in the 'pages from...' results. Although that, of course, remains to be seen.
EURid
