Domain.unlimited

 
By Archita Bhatta
Published: Thursday 31 July 2008

launching websites may become cheaper with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann) deciding to expand domain names from .com and .org to anything after the dot. "This is because people will have more options. If companies owning top domain names keep the prices high, people will just opt for the cheaper ones," said Rajesh Aggarwal, additional ceo of the National Internet Exchange of India, who attended the icann meeting in Paris on June 25.

The internet governance body announced the biggest extension of the domain name system in 40 years. At present, users have 21 top-level domains to choose from--familiar names like .com, .org, .info.

The decision allows applicants to select most marketable domain names. "It could help organize websites better by giving specific addresses. For example, if I want to go to travel sites I could have them all in .travel," said Nitin Desai, chairman of the Internet Governance Forum, a un forum for policy dialogue on issues of internet governance. icann has also allowed domain names in scripts other than roman.

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