Fresh, new domain names may be approved by ICANN
Domain names, or Top-Level-Domains are the commonly known “extensions” of site domain names. These help the computers connected to the Internet to find various web sites, or more specifically, the web servers that serve these webpages.
Common domain names include .com, .org, .net, .biz and .info. There are also country-based names like .us, .fr, .jp, .in etc.
Now, in a move to expand the name system, ICANN is accepting public comments and opinion on new names.
ICANN(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the U.S Government-designated organisation for domain naming policies. They were credited with this position in 1998.
This is the first major expansion of the system in over 6 years, the last one being in 2000.
Critics have poked fun at the ridiculously long period ICANN takes to approve new names, and also the time-consuming approval system that has been put in place.
Meanwhile, this expansion is sure to cause a major headache for corporates, trademark owners and celebrities. Their cause of worry is the possibility of increased cybersquatting. Cybersquatting means grabbing popular names before original owners or companies can do so. The squatters then turn over the domain at high prices, usually several thousand dollars. You must remember that most domains cost less than $10 
ICANN has not disclosed how new names can be put up for approavl.
Procedures would be streamlined to permit a much wider variety of them to be added in a timely, predictable and efficient manner
This was their reply. So much for streamlining, this is just another expansion, with a namesake public survey. Suckers!
Generic Names Supporting Organization, part of ICANN, is in charge of reviewing the procedures. Once their recommendations get across to ICANN, the names could come into existence as early as early 2008(sorry for the crazy repetition!), reports Yahoo! News.
