Seamus Conlon company already owned the address cruise.co.uk so the letter "s" proved to be an expensive acquisition. The price breaks the earlier record for a .co.uk domain of $300,000 paid in October last year.

Conlon’s company purchased the address from a German travel company, said it had to be done to rank well in search results and stay competitive in the industry. ‘Cruises’ is consistently ranked first on Google, with ‘cruise’ just behind," he said. "We wanted the top positions so that when Internet users are searching for deals…we are the first port of call."

Top five highest prices for .co.uk domain names
1. Cruises.co.uk, 560,000 – purchased January 2008
2. Recycle.co.uk, 150,000 – purchased October 2007
3. Ink.co.uk, 130,425 – purchased in 2007
4. Mobile.co.uk, 120,000 – purchased in 2007
5. Taste.co.uk, 110,000 – purchased in 1997

World’s most expensive domain names
1. Sex.com, $12m – purchased in 2005
2. Porn.com, $9.5m – purchased in 2007
3. Business.com, $7.5m – purchased in 1999
4. Diamond.com, $7.5m – purchased in 2006
5. Beer.com, $7m – purchased in 1999