ICANN Approves Overhaul of Top-Level Domains

Big news out of the ICANN meetings taking place today in Paris, France. ICANN
has unanimously approved the introduction of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD’s) – and the decision is expected significantly impact the Internet as we know it.

Soon any public or private organization from anywhere in the world will be able to register any string of letters as a gTLD. Companies will finally be able to secure their brands as TLD’s; for example, Apple or Ebay could apply to have ‘.mac’ or ‘.ebay’ as their domain extension.

The decision also makes possible new domain names that have been requested, and denied by ICANN, for many years, such as .xxx for adult websites and .post for postal service websites.

While many in the Internet governance space are calling the decision historic, other’s see it as an inevitable and potentially beneficial. It is thought that having visually distinct TLDs may help avoid confusion in navigating the ever-expanding Internet and combat fraud.

Network World – Board Opens Way for New Top-Level Domains