From December, when .eu first opened, until now it has only been possible for holders of prior rights, for instance a trademark, to apply for a .eu names. EURid has received more than 300,000 such applications, many of which are already in active use. But since Friday no prior right is needed and the process of getting a .eu domain name is much simpler.
"We are satisfied to see that the interest in .eu has been so large and that many already regard .eu as a useful complement to Internet's national top level domain names," says Marc Van Wesemael, the Managing Director of EURid.
According to EURid, the more than 1,000 accredited registrars who assist potential domain name holders in registering domain names were quite keen to start registering. During the first hour .eu domain names were being registered at an average speed of 76 per second.
