If you've ever wanted your very own top-level domain — ima.geek or noobs2.pwn — it's you're lucky day, because the guardians of the internet have opened the floodgates — provided you've got the cash.

The move came on Thursday, when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers voted unanimously to allow custom top-level domains to anyone with enough cash to tickle ICANN's fancy. Previously top-level domains — the well known .com, .org, & .net's as well as country-specific options like .uk and .de — have been tightly controlled, with ICANN reluctant to add a flurry of new options to the fold. On the surface, it would seem that position has changed, but with the starting cost sitting at $100,000 and up, it's unlikely we'll see too much of a rush on the ICANN office.

Included in the move is the option to have top-level domains utilizing non-Latin characters, providing native-character support for languages with non-Latin alphabets including Chinese, Russian, and Arabic for the first time.

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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
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