A global body (ICANN) that charts the course of the Internet voted to allow the creation of new website domain suffixes (also sometimes called a postfix or ending) by private companies, enabling major firms to replace “.com” with their own brand.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal. This is the biggest change to domain names since the creation of ’.com’ 26 years ago.
Under the changes, businesses would no longer be restricted to the list of generic top level domains (gTLDs) that include .com, .net and .org when they apply to register a website address.
It is feared that opening up new suffixes could cause some confusion. But ICANN board member Sebastien Bachollet, who was in favour of the proposal, said “some people feel that the new gTLDs will cause confusion.” But he added: “I trust we have the tools to ensure the phase of stress will be brief.”