Nominet announced today that the six millionth .uk domain name has been registered. .uk is the second most popular country-code top-level domain in the world. The full press release includes a nod to research which found that UK internet users were more likely to look at .co.uk domains than .com domains:

"The .uk Domain Name register has passed the six million mark. The domain name taking us to the landmark six million figure was klassikbuilders.co.uk, registered by Tony Hunt, a tradesman from Merseyside.

The continued increase in .co.uk registrations indicates that British Internet users recognise the value of having a .co.uk address. A recent survey of 2,324 Internet users, carried out by YouGov demonstrated that users were six times more likely to choose a .uk rather than .com address when looking for information via an Internet search engine.

Lesley Cowley, Chief Executive of Nominet, comments: "With six million Domain Names now registered and a large percentage of these linked to e-commerce, it’s easy to see the importance of a .co.uk domain name to a business. Local companies such as Klassik Builders are realising the value of a .uk domain name for promoting their business to customers.

Tony Hunt, registrant of Klassikbuilders.co.uk, argues: "I found that not having a web site was restricting the growth of my business. These days people go straight to the Internet to find information - even if they are just looking for a local builder. I plan to use the web site as a shop window to let people know what services are available and how they can contact me. I felt that by choosing a .co.uk address, people would be more likely to visit my web site."