New domain names to hit the Internet in 2012

Posted by elena On Tuesday, June 21st 2011 in Technology

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved on Monday the use of brand new domain names for websites. The new naming system will make it possible for people to register almost any domain name, as long as they are ready to pay for it.

Following this decision, brand names, among other things, will begin to serve as online suffixes. We could get website names ending in .microsoft, .sony or .apple, but we could also get .chicago, .eco, .restaurant or .anything. The new domain names will be in use starting with next year.

During a board meeting held in Singapore on June 20, the regulatory body of Internet addresses voted to allow the use of a series of different domain names to what we have become used to until now. At present, there are 22 generic top-level domains or gTLDs, the most common of which is .com. Some of the others are .org, .net, .info, and .edu. There are also some 250 country-level domains, such as .us or .cn. The new regulations could mean that the number of suffixes used online could multiply by hundreds. According to the ICANN, when the new naming system takes effect, domain owners will be able to register almost any word.

Peter Dengate Thrush, the chairman of ICCANN's board of directors, said in a statement that the decision would be the beginning of a "new Internet age", providing a platform for "creativity and inspiration". The ICANN has also decided to allow all languages for domain names, as well as non-Latin scripts. This means that suffixes in scripts like Cyrillic or Chinese will hit the web starting with 2012. The move will allow people who use other scripts than Latin to access websites in their own language more easily, but may also translate to splitting the Internet into several different parts.

The regulatory body will start taking in applications for new domain names on January 12, 2012. But the new domain names will not come for free: applicants will be required to pay a fee of at least $185,000. Exclusive use of a certain suffix will, of course, be more expensive, while an annual fee of $25,000 will also be part of maintaining a certain domain name. Critics of the move say that it will make it difficult for companies to protect their trademarks on the Internet.