The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is about to make some changes that will soon fill the online world with .music, .online and .insurance suffixes instead of .com, .net and .info.
US-based companies and organizations are dominating the bids for new Internet addresses. ICANN has received 1,930 proposals so far and 1,410 of them are for different Internet suffixes. 884 requests for new suffixes were made from the U.S., followed by 303 from the Asia-Pacific region. The organization has revealed new Internet domain name claims and is ready for an expansion. Everything about these suffixes is still a mystery and will be revealed later in a press conference. But ICANN did reveal some information that 166 of the claims were for generic-top-level-domains (gTLDs).
At the moment, there are 22 gTLDs available for registration like .com, .org, .tv, etc. But now ICANN has about 2,000 applications for new gTLDs. The organization is planning for an expansion and is ready for an announcement with the list of new suffixes. Popular companies will be able to create websites with their own brands like .NIKE, .Canon, etc. But these domains won't be cheap and starts from $185,000. And, that' not all, as companies have to pay minimum $25,000 annually to keep these expensive domains.
Some of these new suffixes will be available in a year or two after ICANN approves them. Each of these proposals will be reviewed by the organization as bidders have to pass criminal background checks, its company's contingencies and financial plan. Once the changes are here, people will get to see suffixes like "funny.LOL" or "drama.Youtube" instead of YouTube.com. The online world as people know it won't change, but there will be lots of new Web site names to find out. ICANN is planning to release the first batch of new suffixes between April and June 2013.
