A global internet body has voted to allow the creation of new website domain¹ suffixes², the biggest change for the online world in years.

互联网名称与数字地址分配机构投票通过创造新域名后缀的决定，这是近年来网络世界最大的变革。

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) plans to dramatically increase the number of domain endings from the current 22.

Internet address names will end with almost any word and be in any language.

Icann will begin taking applications next year, with corporations and cities expected to be among the first.

"Icann has opened the internet's addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination," said Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer for Icann.

"No one can predict where this historic decision will take us."

There will be several hundred new generic³ top-level domain names （gTLDs通用顶级域名） , which could include such addresses as .google, .coke, or even .BBC.

There are currently 22 gTLDs, as well as about 250 country-level domain names such as .uk or .de.

Costly⁴ process

It will cost $185,000 (£114,000) to apply for the suffixes, and companies would need to show they have a legitimate⁵ claim to the name they are buying.

Analysts⁶ say it is a price that global giants might be willing to pay - in order to maximise their internet presence.

The money will be used to cover costs incurred⁷（招致，遭受） by Icann in developing the new gTLDs and employing experts to scrutinise（细看，核对） the many thousands of expected applications.

A portion will be set-aside to deal with potential legal actions, raised by parties who fail to get the domains⁸ they want.

The vote completes a six-year negotiation⁹ process and is the biggest change to the system since .com was first introduced 26 years ago.

Icann said it was beginning a global communications programme to raise awareness¹⁰ of the new domain names.

Applications will start on 12 January.