.tk domain name – worth having?

I had an interesting email this morning about registering free domain names with the extension .tk. Don’t go and do it – there are catches. But then this led me to do my usual bit of sleuthing.

As a rule I don’t concern myself with registering all my domains with as many extensions as possible; all that went out with the rubbish ideas years ago. But I was intrigued to find out where .tk hails from. Apparently it is for Tokelau, a territory of New Zeland in the South Pacific just up from Samoa (didn’t know NZ had territories!). I found it on Google maps – good ol’ Google.

But these less common extensions are often used by less reputable ‘people’ – scammers to you and me – and it is always worth reading the small print about how much your ‘free’ domain will cost you after the first year. Personally I wouldn’t go for it – but that’s me. I’m not saying these .tk will have the same fate, just talking generally. It’s certainly a fact that serious/proper/upright businesses need to use the .com, .co.uk extensions – even .info and .biz may be considered by some to be a bit ‘unclean’ – and I do have a couple of those myself and I’m squeaky-clean (I hope).

I then went further down the Wikipedia page (which is just a sales pitch by any other name) and found a whole list of top level extensions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tk

Country code top-level domains

Active:  .ac  .ad  .ae  .af  .ag  .ai  .al  .am  .an  .ao  .aq  .ar  .as  .at  .au  .aw  .ax  .az  .ba  .bb  .bd  .be  .bf  .bg  .bh  .bi  .bj  .bm  .bn  .bo  .br  .bs  .bt  .bw  .by  .bz  .ca  .cc  .cd  .cf  .cg  .ch  .ci  .ck  .cl  .cm  .cn  .co  .cr  .cu  .cv  .cx  .cy  .cz  .de  .dj  .dk  .dm  .do  .dz  .ec  .ee  .eg  .er  .es  .et  .eu  .fi  .fj  .fk  .fm  .fo  .fr  .ga  .gd  .ge  .gf  .gg  .gh  .gi  .gl  .gm  .gn  .gp  .gq  .gr  .gs  .gt  .gu  .gw  .gy  .hk  .hm  .hn  .hr  .ht  .hu  .id  .ie  .il  .im  .in  .io  .iq  .ir  .is  .it  .je  .jm  .jo  .jp  .ke  .kg  .kh  .ki  .km  .kn  .kp  .kr  .kw  .ky  .kz  .la  .lb  .lc  .li  .lk  .lr  .ls  .lt  .lu  .lv  .ly  .ma  .mc  .md  .me  .mg  .mh  .mk  .ml  .mm  .mn  .mo  .mp  .mq  .mr  .ms  .mt  .mu  .mv  .mw  .mx  .my  .mz  .na  .nc  .ne  .nf  .ng  .ni  .nl  .no  .np  .nr  .nu  .nz  .om  .pa  .pe  .pf  .pg  .ph  .pk  .pl  .pn  .pr  .ps  .pt  .pw  .py  .qa  .re  .ro  .rs  .ru  .rw  .sa  .sb  .sc  .sd  .se  .sg  .sh  .si  .sk  .sl  .sm  .sn  .sr  .st  .su  .sv  .sy  .sz  .tc  .td  .tf  .tg  .th  .tj  .tk  .tl  .tm  .tn  .to  .tr  .tt  .tv  .tw  .tz  .ua  .ug  .uk  .us  .uy  .uz  .va  .vc  .ve  .vg  .vi  .vn  .vu  .wf  .ws  .ye  .za  .zm  .zw

Reserved/unassigned:  .um  .bl  .eh  .mf      (.bleh would be cool!)

Allocated/unused:  .bv  .gb  .pm  .sj  .so  .yt

Proposed Cyrillic:  .??  .??

Phaseout:  .tp  .yu

Deleted/retired:  .bu  .cs  .dd .zr

I always wondered what was happening in the world, so now I know – and so do you.

What I would like is a .fam – for family. Perhaps later.

–Lyn

PS  I am not an affiliate for, nor will I be for .tk anything. It simply piqued my interest.

.tk, .tk domain. review, tld, unusual domain names