clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk The net's regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed.
If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.
The move could also see the launch of .xxx, after years of wrangling.
Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org.
Arbitration process
Hundreds of new domain names could be created by the end of the year, rising to thousands in the future.
"We are doing this on a cost recovery basis. We've already spent $10m on this," he said.