ICANN approves dot-everything domain

ICANN announced today that they have approved the launch of a program that will let any company apply to run dot-anything domain. Starting January 2012, organisations will be able to submit an application to ICANN for a virtually any gTLD. It will cost a minimum of $185,000 per application.

"ICANN has opened the Internet's addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination. No one can predict where this historic decision will take us," said Rod Beckstrom, President and chief executive of ICANN in a statement.

Many large companies will be able apply for so-called ".brand" extensions. Geographic gTLDs will be available, as well - for example .london, .nyc. The new rules will enable the creation of domain extensions in non-Latin character sets, such as Arabic, Chinese, Greek and Cyrillic.

"Today's decision will usher in a new Internet age," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN's Board of Directors told reporters. "We have provided a platform for creativity and inspiration, and for the next big dot-thing."

Read more -here-

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