A brief unscientific survey of dot-eu domain names suggests that 80% are crappy redirects, fake websites, or just don’t exist even though they’ve been registered.
But the whole aim of the .eu domain system was to “accelerate electronic commerce”, promote internet use, and raise the profile of the single market. It was to be “a key building block for electronic commerce in Europe” and “help combat the risk of digital divide”. This was all actually set out in an EU law available as a PDF here.
Instead, we appear to have hundreds of thousands Potemkin domain names. The market regards it as a pointless exercise, and the system has been hijacked by speculators. Eurid is a non-profit foundation established to control the system, and it now has three offices, but it is simply administrating a useless resource conjured out of thin air. It takes payment for each of these domain names, but they might as well be selling plots of land on Mars.
I was surprised and suspicious to read on Eurid’s website that 81% of names lead to functioning websites or e-mail addresses.
But the explanation is obvious. The vast majority of names have been registered by speculators hoping to sell them on for a profit. They then upload standard pages offering sponsored search, or simply offer to sell the domain to anybody interested.
I wanted to work out the true figures, and see how many people use the dot-eu suffix for the lofty purposes described in the EU’s law. Without access to Eurid’s database, it was impossible to get a truly random sample of names to test.
Instead, I tested four samples of ten names each. The results were interesting:
10 random words taken from a magazine article (for example “developers.eu”). Only one successfully resolved. The other nine were fake search sites, registered but no website, or just for sale. Bottom line: 90% useless.
The 10 most popular French surnames according to Wikipedia. Not a single one was used for a website. 1 (martin.eu) was owned by a manufacturing business called Martin, but there was no website. The remainder were fake or non-existent. Bottom line: 90% useless.
The first 10 names of German regions. This should have been more successful, as I think geographical names get some protection. It was indeed more successful, but the results were still pretty dismal. Five resolved to relevant sites. Three redirected to .de sites (what!? have they no faith in the .eu?). Two were fake. Bottom line: 50% useless.
The first ten domain names under a random Google search within the Italian country-level domain (I searched for robotica Bologna in .it sites, took the first ten and converted the names to .eu - a highly nerdish approach, I know). Some of these were registered OK, but in the end only two resolved to a relevant website. Bottom line: 80% useless.
From this survey, it looks like only 20% of all .eu domain names are being used according to the ideals of the EU law when it was passed back in 2002. The rest are useless.
Meanwhile an arbitration court in the Czech Republic has been set up to hear the idiot owners of domain names squabble over who has rights to them. For €3,339 you can ask a three-member panel to reject your claim in favour of some poxy reseller who’s obviously bought your name to make some money out of it.
For example, see this dispute about who should own pool.eu - a swimming pool manufacturer, or a domain speculator? Obviously, the domain speculator!
What a swindle!
See below for details of the four samples if you’re really interested…
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