Domain-name expansion OK'd

(CNN) - The group that coordinates Internet domain addresses has voted to open domain name extensions up to a vast new array of possibilities.

At a meeting in Paris on Thursday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) unanimously agreed to a policy that will eventually allow a host of new "generic top-level domains" to join the list of 20 domains that now includes dot-com, dot-edu and dot-org, as well as country extensions such as dot-jp or dot-it.

Analysts say the new list could lead to a host of new business-, city- or hobby-specific domain names, such as dot-hotel, dot-flight, dot-fishing or even dot-sex.

ICANN also voted to break the English-language prominence of domain names by allowing "internationalized" names - ones using other languages' characters, such as Chinese or Arabic.
–From CNN's Jim Boulden in London