Hyderabad, June 21, 2011: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the creation of generic top-level domains (TLDs) for brands and organizations.

Thus in the near future internet domain names would end in extensions similar to company names such as .sony or .tata etc.

Till now ony 22 approved TLDs existed which includes the much popular .com, .net, .biz, .info etc. Similary country name based extensions such as .uk, or .in were also used.

The change is expected to help large companies and cities who can launch their own generic top level domain names. The new system will support use of domain names in languages other than English too. However this may cost more than $185000, according to ICANN.

ICANN will start accepting applications for new domain names from January 12 to April 12, 2011 and the domains will become active after evaluation.