Domain names with endings such as whereto.go or the names of big corporations such as Hitachi could soon pop up on the internet after Monday's groundbreaking decision to allow addresses to end in almost any word in any language.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which governs the web's naming system, approved its long-debated plan to increase the number of generic top-level domains - the words after the last dot - from 22 endings, including .com, .org and .net.
'The decision will usher in a new internet age,' Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann's board of directors, said. 'We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration.'
After the vote at a meeting in Singapore - with 13 for, one against and two abstaining - applicants can apply to Icann for almost any domain name endings that they want between next January and April, with a minimum fee of US$185,000 per application.
Hitachi and Canon plan to use .hitachi and .canon; other names include .movie and whereto.go.
Joseph Ng Kee-yin, a professor at Baptist University's computer science department, said the change meant there would be more industry-specific names, such as .broadcast, in future.