Double U, Double U, Double U Dot Anything?

The Internet is moving way beyond dot-com, and websites will soon end in anything the owner wants it to be. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), used to allow 22 suffixes for websites, such as ".com" and ".org", will now allow suffixes for almost any word in any language. “Today's decision will usher in a new Internet age,” Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann's Board of Directors, said in the statement. “We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.” Applications will be $185,000, and the first portion of these domain names will become live at the end of next year, according to a Bloomberg interview with Adrian Kinderis, a member of Icann's advisory council. Such companies as Canon CAJ, Deloitte and Hitachi Ltd. have already expressed interested in company-specific domain names.