For years, Icann, the overseer of all things .com, .biz, .org, etc., has held a tight grip on top level domains - those letters that can appear after the dot. This has led to some very awkward URLs, with people and companies trying to squeeze variations on their name into the most common .com category.

 Now it looks like any dot goes.

Icann has changed its stripes - er, dots - and is going to permit virtually any word to follow the dot. As in Coca Cola will be able to get .coke if it wants. Your station will be able to purchase .wxxx if you so desire. Icann will still review the applicants, with first preference going to the trademark and copyright owners. It's the control over the URLs companies would have wanted in the first place. A dot landrush.

But what about more generic TLDs? Who gets .hotel, .restaurant or .airline? Those will be settled by auctions - and some are predicting the numbers will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And if your mind is going where the Internet inevitably goes - to the dot dirty word, Icann has a plan for that, too. Sort of. From the New York Times:

Icann officials said any applications for the new domains would have to go through an independent review process. Third parties will be able to challenge applications on the grounds that a particular suffix could threaten “morality and public order.”

So what could possibly go wrong there? An international body deciding what's moral and what constitutes public order? Good luck.

I don't see that Icann had any other choice, lawsuits or not. It's a crowded place, this Internet of ours. And, as you know, we've already run out of the good URLs (ask anyone who has one of those tortured "mylocalABC6site.com" deals). 

Keep an eye on this. I'm not saying you should spend $100 grand on an address. But let's see where this goes.