A complete overhaul of the way in which people navigate the internet has been given the go-ahead in Paris.
The net's regulator, Icann, voted unanimously to relax the strict rules on so-called "top-level" domain names, such as .com or .uk. The decision means that companies could turn brands into web addresses, while individuals could use their names. A second proposal, to introduce domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts, was also approved.
At the moment, top-level domains (TLDs) are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org. To get around the restrictions, some companies have used the current system to their own ends. For example, the Polynesian island nation Tuvalu has leased the use of the .tv address to many television firms. Under the new plans, domain names can be based on any string of letters, in any script. Individuals will be able to register a domain based on their own name, for example, as long as they can show a "business plan and technical capacity".
The result could be thousands or even millions of new addresses. The most likely new TLDs to be pushed into the Icann process are those that have been under development for some time now - the geo-TLDs such as .cym for Wales, .sco for Scotland, .ldn for London, .nyc for New York and so on. Others point out that some generic domain names - such as .news or .sport - could become subject to contention and a bidding war.
The process of introducing the new system will start in 2009, with the first websites possibly coming online in the final quarter of the year.
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