Shorter .uk web addresses announced Lesley Cowley, Nominet CEO, said: "The .uk namespace is one of the most popular and trusted available and we're committed to ensuring it stays up-to-date and relevant. We're excited to offer the option of a shorter, snappier domain name that we believe will appeal to both our existing customers and the businesses and bloggers of tomorrow. It comes after the news last week that internet addresses ending in .london will be available next year after ICANN, the global internet body, signed a contract giving the new system the formal go-ahead. Nominet said it will announce a launch date for its .uk services by February 2014. The company also today revealed measures to enhance security, including a domain-locking tool which Nominet says will "protect high value domains from social-engineering attacks." A new Registrar Agreement and data visualisation tools were also announced. Registrars and other stakeholders have been invited to submit comments on the new draft by December 20. Cowley added she wanted to help businesses keep "ahead of the curve." In an industry that is seeing an unprecedented level of change with the upcoming introduction of over a thousand new top level domains, we're hard at work to ensure innovation in .uk keeps UK web users and businesses ahead of the curve. At the same time, we're holding ourselves to a higher standard - expanding the choices available to our customers, upping the bar for security, data quality and the way we engage with our registrars to ensure everyone registering, managing or visiting a website with a domain ending in .uk can be proud to be part of a strong, trusted community.