LONDON - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has proposed offering endless variations on top-level domain addresses.
The proposal, which is being reviewed this week at the ICANN conference in Paris, would permit companies to buy new generic top-level domains such as .ebay, IT Pro reported.
"We are in the process of opening up new real estate, new land, and people will go out and claim parts of that land and use it for various reasons they have," Paul Twomey, president and CEO of ICANN, told the BBC. "It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the Internet."
ICANN reported that network addresses are expected to run out within the next five years.
The proposal is expected to pass and make new domains available to companies by the beginning of next year.
If passed, the proposal will additionally open up the .xxx destination to independent companies who may express more interest in the top-level domain than the adult industry has.
ICANN rejected ICM Registry's application for a sponsored .xxx top-level domain back in March of 2007. ICM Registry has since filed an independent review petition against ICANN in hopes of getting the sponsored community behind the proposal, ICM Registry President and Chariman Stuart Lawley told AVN Online.
The application fee for domain extensions is expected to be out of the reach of most consumers and cybersquatters.
