Miaka 26 baada ya .com kuzinduliwa kwa dunia, officials wamefuta masharti yote yasiyo ya msingi ya website naming, opening up a whole world of personalised web address suffixes.
Icann, the
internet naming board, wame-approve the biggest changes in the web's history on Monday, allowing the number of web suffixes to expand virtually without limit. Mpaka sasa, kuna 22 international "top level domain" suffixes such as ".com", lakini sites zenye suffixes kama vile ".sport" and ".eco" will pop up next year.
Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of Icann's board of directors, said: "Today's decision will usher in a new internet age. We have provided a platform for the next generation of creativity and inspiration. Unless there is a good reason to restrain it, innovation should be allowed to run free."
Wachambuzi wanasema wanategemea kuwepo from 500 to 1,000 domain suffixes, sana sana kwa makampuni na bidhaa zinazotaka kuwepa alama zao kwenye web addresses, lakini vile vile kwa miji na majina mengine ya kiofisi kama .bank or .hotel.
Websites sasa zinaweza kuwa categorised kwa subjects such as industry, geography and ethnicity – as well as using Arabic, Chinese and other scripts. There are also 290 country suffixes such as ".uk" and ".fr", which will remain unchanged for now.
Groups have formed to back ".sport" for sporting sites, and two conservationist groups separately are seeking the right to operate an ".eco" suffix.
"If your brand has just three letters, it might be worth it. If you're Tommy Hilfiger, it's probably not, because I can't imagine anyone bothering to type all that at the end of a URL."
However, the principal beneficiaries are likely to be the internet registrars who sell the rights to site names. Icann has set a $185,000 fee per suffix, and applicants have to work their way through a 360-page guidebook to prepare their bids ahead of the first suffix auctions, which start on 12 January 2012 and run for 90 days.
Icann says it will auction suffixes if multiple parties have legitimate claims. However, it expects companies will reach deals to avoid a public auction.
Sijui kama na wabongo watanunua suffix kama .Dar, .bunge .Tbc, .eacombined(.co.cc), au .jamiiforums( I challenge you).