The global domain name system is in urgent need of an overhaul, according to a former chair of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Peter Dengate Thrush told the BBC that the number of people now using the internet means a broader naming approach is now needed.
“No-one would design a domain name system now for several billion users just using a couple of names that we started the system with in 1985,” he noted.
Mr. Dengate Thrush was speaking ahead of the launch of generic top level domain names tomorrow (Thursday January 12th).
From this week, businesses and organizations will be able to customize their own domain name suffix, using their own brand name if they so choose.
Applicants are required to pay a fee of $185,000 just to apply for the process, however Jonathan Robinson, a non-executive director of Afilias, claimed it will take more to secure a domain name.
“Probably you are closer to half a million dollars to get it off the ground,” he stated.