BBC News Channel: Presentation

I don't understand your point that .com makes it american. Sky and ITV don't seem to have such identity problems with their .com URLs.

.com was supposed to be the American TLD but that's not the way it turned out in the end.

So, archiveTV, you don't have a source, or a reason? Therefore you must be talking twaddle.

I was under the impression that the .com TLD was being introduced as the global homepage of the BBC, with the .uk version continuing to be promoted to British viewers. As both domains end up on basically the same pages it makes no real difference which appears on screen apart from viewer familiarity. Why OfCom would care enough about a minor presentational detail and ban the use of .com by the BBC I can not see.

Presumably because bbc.com carries advertising, and so is a commercial venture. Therefore the BBC's licence funded, non-commercial channels can't promote it. It's rather like how the BBC can't promote the Radio Times anymore, even though they make it.

Doesn't sound like twaddle to me at all.

not that people in britain can see that unless they use a proxy to view it from abroad.

Have you never heard of people living outside the UK? Fool.

I think there's been a miscommunication here. Moz is saying that as the BBC is British (including all of its overseas services), then the web addresses should reflect that. He meant "we" as in both the BBC and the British people.

However, it makes sense to me that there should be a distinction between the non-commercial UK version, and the commercial overseas version.

But if you go to bbc.com it diverts to bbc.co.uk - or is that just in the UK?

Yes that just happens for UK users, otherwise you get the .com with adverts on it.

I would think that archiveTV IS the reliable source, rather than needing a source.

And anyway, I certainly wouldn't give you a reply if you talked to me in that manner. Just who do you think you are?

A common misconception. .us is the American TLD. .com, .org and .net are simply generic TLDs.

Whatever. I think we all know that .com is American, everyone else puts their country on the end. I've never seen a website with .us on the end!