ICANN comes in with new top level domains

ICANN has decided to press ahead with plans to open up a range of brand name top level domain suffixes, despite having some weighty opposition.
The decision was announced by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) president and CEO Rod Beckstrom, who said that after some chin stroking the organisation is ready to begin receiving applications for new global top level domain names (GTLDs) on 12 January.

This week will witness a biggest change in the world of World Wide Web. After 30 years of its inception, internet will allow users to have domain names of their choice. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which decides who gets to manage .com, .net and other domains to the right of the period in a URL, plans to begin accepting applications this week for a hugely expanded number of Web domain options.For instance, you can apply for a domain name after yourself or your company. Like .ravi if your name is Ravi or .pepsi.At present there are about 22 types of top-level domains (TLDs) such as .com or .gov; and country codes such as .in for India and .uk for the United Kingdom.Reportedly, anyone will be able register any web address suffix for USD 185,000 (Rs 9,754,051 approx). ICANN will start accepting applications from January 12.

Top level domain names have already seen some scandal in recent months thanks to the launch of the triple X top level domain, which is intended to segregate adult entertainment web sites from the rest of the internet.