Nominet has registered five million .uk domains since it was founded ten years ago.

The Oxford-based .uk domain name registry is marking this important milestone with a nostalgic look-back over the last decade.

Did you know, for example, that Nominet registered 2,000 .uk registrations in its first month of operation in 1996? Now the world's fourth largest internet registry handles 144,000 registrations every month.

What's more, around three million of those registered .uk domains are still active with half linking to ecommerce or business sites, with a further 16 per cent "under construction".

There are also 170,000 .uk domain names registered for personal use.

So, what was the five millionth .uk domain to be registered? Well, it was Hosepipebanbuster.co.uk, registered on 16 May by Herts-based irrigation system company Watermatics Ltd. And during the UK's wettest drought as well. ®