flofy Posted January 29, 2014 Report Posted January 29, 2014 Starting next week, the Internet is going to look very different -- and ICANN Chief Executive Fadi Chehadé is the one who'll get both the credit and the blame.Today, Net addresses end with 22 familiar terms -- .com, .net, and .edu -- called generic top-level domains (GTLDs). But starting Feb. 4, the first of hundreds of new GTLDs will begin arriving -- .ninja, .farm, .shoes, .photography, .bike, .pink, and even .wtf. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit organization, oversees the domain-name expansion and the core Internet technology called the Domain Name System that makes it tick. Chehade took over ICANN leadership in 2012 and now is grappling not just with the GTLD expansion, but also the dwindling supply of numeric Internet addresses and an attempt to wean the Internet from the US government's dominant oversight role. By the end of the year we'll have hundreds of new domains. What's the benefit of opening this up so widely? At ICANN we came to the conclusion that the 22 current GTLDs were crowded and it was time to give more variety and more choice and more competition. As an entrepreneur, I am a great believer that as you expand technology and give new horizons to people, you can't even imagine what people will come up with -- but I'm certain the market will discover them. The Domain Name System [will allow domains] not only in Latin letters but in Chinese letters and Cyrillic letters and Arabic letters. You can talk to the mayor of New York. He has big ideas for .nyc. The mayor of Rio [de Janeiro] called me about all their plans for .rio. I belong to a minority community -- the Coptic Orthodox Christian community. I know that minorities will find places on the Net to express themselves through Domain Name System spaces. Why bother with the domain-name expansion? For a company trying to get a new start on the Net, finding an unclaimed Web address can be tough. And for a company catering to customers in countries like China or Russia, names are held back with characters in the Roman alphabet. Other companies might want to use their own domain -- actual examples including .google, .canon, .apple, .samsung, and .ibm.Articol: ICANN CEO sets off explosion of new Internet names (Q&A) | Internet & Media - CNET News Quote
