The end of the .com: Web revolution as .com is swopped for .bank .sport or .anything

For having grasped that all the really useful website names end in .com, .org or .co.uk, it looks like finding an internet address is going to get more complicated.

Yesterday the regulator the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) voted to ease its strict rules on what are called 'top level' website addresses.

Changing: Internet addresses are getting more complicated

Its ruling will make way for millions of new sites  -  this time ending in suffixes such as .bank, .sport or even .haveagoodtime.

The process will begin next year and will at first be limited to major organisations. For example, cities such as London, New York and Berlin might be keen to create a whole selection of addresses which would end .ldn, .nyc and .berlin respectively.

Eventually there could even be individual or family websites with names such as .branson or .sugar. But buying one of this new generation of addresses off Icann will not be cheap  -  some could cost as much as £250,000.

Icann chief Paul Twomey said it would be 'the biggest change to the way people find each other on the internet since its inception'.

But there are fears it will boost cybersquatting  -  unfairly registering brand names to make money  -  or encourage criminals, who could find it easier to pose as banks.

Thomas Herbert of Hostway, a web hosting company, said firms would struggle to protect their websites and intellectual property.

'For example, Amazon would have to register many more domain names including Amazon.amazon, amazon.shopping, amazon.electronics. The list is practically endless.'

Icann also gave the green light to domain names in Asian, Arabic or other scripts  -  until now only the Roman alphabet has been used.