“ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today’s decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind,” said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.
So, get ready for Web sites that end with the names of cities or brands, like .berlin or .canon, to name just two entities that have expressed interest in the proposed system. There is no doubt in my mind that this will open up a wave of new and creative website names, such as iwant.beer, letsgo.out, etc. But does this mean you’ll be able to go out and buy an awesome extension for your own personal blog? Probably not. The price of the new extensions has been set at a steep $185,000, for example, with a further $25,000 annual fee to maintain them. However if you do happen to have an extra $200,000 laying around, applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012.
ICANN’s full press release can be accessed via the following link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/releases/release-20jun11-en.pdf
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