Internet Change Makes Way for Dot-Anything

06 November 2011

Nigerians browse the Internet at a cybercafe in Lagos

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

A top-level domain is the part of an Internet address after the dot. The most common of what are called generic top-level domains are dot-com, dot-net and dot-org. There are twenty-two generic top-level domain names currently available. But get ready for many, many more.

The international organization that controls these names will begin accepting applications for new ones in January. This will open the door to dot-just-about-anything. Brad White is with ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

BRAD WHITE: "What we’re talking about doing with the new generic top-level domain program is blowing the lid off that ceiling of twenty two. The interest is there to expand that. We no longer have to keep this to twenty-two. It can be almost any word combination. It can be in non-Latin characters, which is extremely important if you happen to speak Russian because of the Cyrillic alphabet, or Arabic, or Chinese."

ICANN officials met last month in Dakar, Senegal. Brad White says they discussed the new program for what are known as gTLDs.

BRAD WHITE: "This marks one of the biggest changes in the Internet's domain name system, the addressing system of the Internet, that has ever occurred. We want to make sure that the process of getting these gTLDs into the Internet’s root is methodical, careful and thoughtful."