http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-26jun08-en.htm

Biggest Expansion to Internet in Forty Years Approved for Implementation

26 June 2008

* Paris, France:* The Board of ICANN today approved a recommendation 
that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's 
addressing system.

"The Board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders 
that it is possible to implement many new names to the Internet, paving 
the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity" said Dr 
Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.

A final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN 
Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final 
version will be published in early 2009.

"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to 
express themselves on the Net," said Dr Twomey. "It's a massive increase 
in the 'real estate' of the Internet."

Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose 
from — names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info.

This proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their 
domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or 
potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will 
apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for 
the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as 
generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already 
interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, 
like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

"One of the most exciting prospect before us is that the expanding 
system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of 
the world," said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's Chairman. "This is going 
to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle 
East, Eastern Europe and Russia." The present system only supports 37 
Roman characters.

Upon approval of the implementation plan, it is planned that 
applications for new names will be available in the second quarter of 2009.


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