Other applicants probably will be motivated by the prospect of peddling thousands of Web addresses with endings of their own devising.
Companies already in the domain-name business, such as Network Solutions Inc. and Santa Monica-based Demand Media Inc.'s ENom, should see a big boost in volume.
Critics warned that some would rush in to grab trademarked names or misspelled versions of those names -- as in Gooogle.mail or mail.Gooogle -- and then take their chances in court if sued for violating trademarks.
In the meantime, they could sell ads on those sites or post malicious code that could infect the computers of unwary visitors.
"Google doesn't want a scam artist running google.whatever," said Weinstein, co-founder of the nonprofit People For Internet Responsibility. "It's almost like an extortion racket -- you'd better buy your name in this new top-level domain or you're going to get blamed."
Twomey said trademark holders would be afforded some protections, such as the right to object before new address endings go live. Disputes will be sent to arbitration.
As for last names that hold broad appeal and attract a host of legitimate aspirants, such as .california or .sports, applicants will be asked to work something out together. If they fail, an auction would be the most likely outcome.
Twomey said throwing open the gates might cost ICANN about $20 million to promote the new system, process the applications and assess the business plans of applicants. ICANN plans to earn the money back through application fees.
Under its existing process, ICANN has approved 21 suffixes, and most have flopped, said Ron Jackson, editor of a trade publication on domain names called DNJournal.
More than 76 million .com names had been registered by the end of last month, while .biz, the 10th-most popular, had less than 2 million.
An increase in clutter might make the tried-and-true endings, especially .com, stand out even more.
"People have branded in their minds the original extensions -- .com, .net and .org," Jackson said. "Downtown real estate in Los Angeles doesn't get any less valuable because someone's building out in Oxnard."
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joseph.menn@latimes.com
