Over the last few months ICANN held the dialogues about provisioning new gTLD’s (generic Top-Level Domains) in any language or script. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) finally voted overwhelmingly this week to allow a new array of Internet domain suffixes.

Who is ICANN? What did they do?

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

Right now, there are a limited number – 22, to be precise – of what’s called “generic Top-level Domains.” The most familiar ones are “.com”, “.org”, “.edu”, “.info”, and “.net.”

Under the new rule, people will be able to apply to ICANN to register most any word, in any language, as their domain suffix.

You ask whether you can set up your own domain? That depends. Are you rich? Are you an established corporation or government? If the answer to any of the above is “no,” then probably not.

ICANN will be charging at least $185,000 per domain application (more in the case of buyers who want one all to themselves). So it seems pretty clear that this will largely be for corporations, and maybe some governments.

It also will cost money to set up and maintain the domain, so something like .google or .ibm will a lot more likely to happen than, say, .cokesucks.

ICANN will accept initial applications between Jan. 12 and April 12 of next year, says we should start seeing new domains in July 2012.

What does it mean for us?

For retailers and others, the advantage is branding. Having your own domain could lend a sense of legitimacy on the web. Because of the difficulty of getting an application through ICANN’s process, a personalized domain ending will be an authenticity watermark of sorts.

For the common Web user, the answer is a little hazier.

The negative impacts of this fiasco on ordinary consumers and Internet users will ultimately become all too clear, as the resulting effects of massively increased cybersquatting, spammers, and phishing.

Applicant Guidebook
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/dag-en.htm