ICANN, the Internet’s chief regulating body, has just decided to completely open up the Domain Naming System. Hundreds if not thousands of new top-level domains are on their way.

Now “.com”, “.gov”, and so on can be joined by just about anything, including non-English names and characters. Trademarked names, like “.microsoft”, or “.disney” will be restricted, objectionable terms won’t be allowed, and there is expected to be heavy competition for names like “.bank” when the new system starts in a year. It won’t be cheap, either. ICANN expects to raise over $100,000 for each new category. But “.com” is expected to remain the most common for a very long time.