开放顶级域名互联网更将海阔天空

The regulatory body that oversees Internet domain names has agreed to end restrictions on suffixes for site names, a change that will dramatically increase the number of possible site names while opening up new branding opportunities for companies, cities and others.

主管互联网域名分配的机构同意终止对网址名称的限制，这项改变将大幅度地增加可能的网站名称数量，同时也为公司、城市和其他单位开启行销商标的新机会。

Currently, Internet site owners are limited to a handful of suffixes, such as dot.com, dot.org or dot.gov.

互联网的网站网主原来只限定用几个固定的域名，像是 "点com"、"点org"、"点gov"。

But starting in January registrants will be able to invent their own suffixes.

但是，从明年一月开始，网站注册者将能用自己起的域名。

Major companies are expected to create suffixes with their own names. Japanese electronics giant, Canon, has already said it plans to apply for rights to use domain names ending with dot-canon. The German capital city, Berlin, has reportedly expressed interest in a dot.berlin suffix. Other suffixes could help organize the Internet by language, geography or industry.

一般预料，大公司会用自己的公司行号创造域名。日本电子产品巨头佳能公司说，它计划申请以 "点canon" 作结尾的域名。据报导，德国首都柏林也对 "点berlin" 作结尾的域名表达了兴趣。其他域名能以语言、地理或行业来协助互联网的分类。

The change was overwhelmingly approved Monday in Singapore in a vote of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

互联网域名与号码分配机构(ICANN)星期一在新加坡进行投票，压倒性批准了这项改变。

The Los Angeles-based non-profit organization is expected to begin taking applications for the new names on January 12.

这个总部设在洛杉矶的非营利组织，预定在明年1月12日开始接受新域名的申请。

Brad White, ICANN's director of global media affairs, says opening the Internet address system will have far-reaching social and commercial impact.

布莱德.怀特是互联网域名与号码分配机构的全球媒体事务主任，他说，开放网址系统将会对社会和商业产生深远的影响。

"It will afford a possibility for innovation, creativity, branding, marketing. We can't fully predict the impact that this change will have, but we know it will have tremendous impact, in much the same way that nobody could predict social media. Nobody could predict the popularity of Skype. No one could predict the popularity of Facebook or Twitter. What we have done is removed a barrier to innovation," says White.

怀特说：“它将为革新、创造、建立品牌、行销产生更多的可能性，我们无法完全预测这个改变造成的冲击，但我们知道它将会有巨大的影响，如同当初没人预测得到社交媒体的影响，没人预测得到 Skype 的受欢迎程度，也没人预料到 Facebook (脸谱) 或 Twitter (推特) 的受欢迎程度。我们做的就是给革新除去障碍。”

There are currently 22 generic top-level domains, also known as gTLDs. Dot.com, dot.org and dot.info are a few examples. There are also about 250 country-level domains like dot.uk for Britain or dot.cn for China.

目前有22个通用的顶级域名(gTLD)，例如 "点com"、"点org"、"点info" 这一些，同时还有250个国家级的域名，像是英国的 "点uk"，中国的 "点cn"。