Jun 27 2008
New variety of web addresses on web!
An array of new exciting web addresses for the web will be used soon giving a new look to the internet. The common domain names - .com and .edu will be the old stuff as the new flavor of a variety of web addresses like .love, .sky, .sports etc is waiting for you.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) approved measures that will allow top-level domain names to be written in scripts such as Arabic or Cyrillic.
After that any company, organization or country will soon be able to apply for a new Web address extension, called a top-level domain. Icann adopted the new rules after a meeting in Paris.
Top-level domain names (TLD) , refer to Internet name suffixes like .com, .net and .org, among others. Currently, there are more than 200 TLDs, which also include the two-character country codes used by Web sites, such as Britain’s .uk.
“This is a historic resolution,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann’s board. “It’s going to make a big difference to how the Internet looks and works.”
On Thursday, Internet regulators voted to relax rules on domain names like .com or .edu, which could pave the way for companies or individuals to create new flavored addresses for the Web.
Icann officials said some technical issues for the new system must still be worked out, but it could be reviewing the first applications for new TLDs as early as next spring. Icann officials estimated that prices would start in the low six figures, so the organization can recoup its expenses for developing the new service.
Under the new system, individuals, companies or groups could apply to have any string of letters established as a domain name. It could be a vanity name, for example — .smith — or a category name like .sports or .perfume. A company could also change its domain to reflect its brand, so Apple.com could become Apple.mac, for instance.
It could also sow confusion in the minds of Web users, create a host of new ways to exploit the Web addressing system and start a wave of legal skirmishes over applications to register trademarks — .coke, for example.
The Icann board said it would seek public comment on the guidelines before its next major meeting in November.
