Life beyond ".com"

Anyone trying to acquire a new domain name knows, getting a ".com" is next to impossible. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for these domain names, today released a list of potential alternatives to .com in an effort to "to increase competition and choice." At the moment, there are merely 22 "generic top-level domain name" strings like .com, .net, .org, .edu, etc. in addition to 280 country codes. ICANN has opened up the domain name space, accepting applications from companies -- for a hefty $185,000 application fee -- to register domain suffixes like .home, .boo, .vip, .bbc, and hundreds of others. The full list is available below.