Today’s narrow range of so-called top-level domains (such as .com and .org) are about to be joined by an unlimited range of new ones. These could be used as corporate branding (.coke or .pepsi, for example), to organize multiple sites into categories (think .food, .bank, and anything else). But, while they could open new commercial opportunities and have some security benefits, the domains could also confuse some users, creating new opportunities for fraud artists.

For decades, the Internet has operated with just 21 top-level domains—the most common one being .com (which has about 200 million registered domain names)—plus country names like .jp for Japan and .de for Germany. But last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit body that governs the naming system, decided after years of discussion to allow the new custom top-level domains. The organization is about to launch a campaign to raise awareness about their availability, and will accept applications starting January 12, 2012.  

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