New Domain Names Are .Ontheway

The dot-com era could be coming to a close with a decision to allow nearly any words under the sun to be turned into domain suffixes.

Digital overlords at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, voted today to allow countless new, more distinct domain suffixes, moving away from the apparently restrictive confines of the .coms and .cas that we know all too well. Granted, if you want a domain name like "themarknews.isamazing" or "vancouver.isburning", you'll have to shell out about $185,000 for the rights, a price calculated to give corporations a chance to get their preferred names ahead of the internet's less altruistic users. ICANN will be accepting new domain submissions starting next year, with the new sites likely hitting the web by the end of 2012.