For years, web-sters everywhere have been under the tyranny of .com, .org, and .net—but that will be no more beginning in 2009.
At a meeting in Paris recently, the powers that be (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) – more commonly known by their catchy acronym ICANN –approved the future use of domain names using any combination of letters, numbers, and characters.
Presently, countries have had to use suffixes like .cn (China), using latin-based letters. New policies make it possible for non-latin characters to make a debut on web-grounds. The registration of a new domain name begins at the hefty price of $100,000, but makes names like .sports, .xxx, or, sexier still, .中国 possible.
According to CNN, ICANN traditionally “only approved domain names considered as adding value”. Now it says “the goal is to quickly approve nearly every domain name submitted unless there is a dispute over the name.”
The implications are numerous, but what’s most important for most non-English web browsers is that this new policy heralds the magnificent end of awkward-sounding names like xinhua.com. Instead of using ping ying or other sound based modification so that they conform to the English alphabet, internet users all over the world can go on websites using their own languages.

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