Net regulators in California are poised to approve a new batch of web address suffixes to add more permutations to the fast-dwindling stock of dot.com addresses.
Up to 44 new "top-level domains" are being considered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), including .biz, .health, .travel, .xxx and .kids. Generic suffixes for personal web pages, including .per and .nom, may also be introduced.
Experts say the move, similar to creating new telephone dialling codes, is needed to increase the capacity of the domain name system despite fears that new suffixes could trigger a fresh outbreak of cybersquatting, as speculators snap up well-known addresses with new suffixes to sell on for huge profits.
Pam Brewster, at Icann, stressed that a limited number of domain names would be introduced "in a responsible manner". The Icann board is expected to approve between three and 20 top-level domain names at a conference in California tomorrow.
Ms Brewster said there are a variety of reasons for introducing new names. "Some people say all the good names are taken so we need more," she said. "Some people want more domains to add more competition and diversity to the domain name system. It could also make it easier to find what you are looking for on the internet."
The internet's naming system, featuring dot.com, .org and .net, alongside country codes such as .uk and .fr, has remained unchanged since its inception in the mid-1980s..
Numerous public figures, including Madonna, Jeanette Winterson and George W Bush, have fought cybersquatters for colonising their names on the net. Despite tough new US anti-cybersquatting laws, the global reach of the internet has made it difficult to prosecute websites which infringe upon registered trademarks.
To deter cybersquatting on the new suffixes, Icann may initiate a "sunrise" early registration period, during which only trademark owners can buy names with the new endings.
The price of internet "real estate" has been driven up by firms competing for the dwindling number of prestigious dot.com addresses. Legal experts hope that increasing the supply of potential names may dissuade speculative squatters.
"If we have .biz as well as dot.com that should considerably reduce the extent to which cybersquatting is lucrative, but without in any way removing it," said Professor Graham Greenleaf from the University of New South Wales's faculty of law.
New top-level domain names could also be used to regulate porn. If adult websites carry a .xxx suffix filtering software could more easily identify pornographic material, and prevent children accessing it. Although Icann suggested it was premature to release the naming convention before the ability to force the net porn industry to adopt it.
Firms who sell registered domain names stand to make the most from the reforms, as those with a dot.com address rush to re-register their name.
Internet registration firms are playing down the potential boom, however.
"I think it will make an impact but not a huge one," said Pablo Kleckin of Domain Names Australia. "Anybody who thinks a new whizz-bang three-letter suffix is going to outdo a dot.com is not really being realistic. The dot.com is still the holy grail of the domain names. If you can get a sexy name in a dot.com you've got a licence to go global with your business."
