Dubai: For more than 15 years millions of people have been typing .com, .net, and .info (among others) into the address bar of their web browers without really knowing why.

The reasons why are obscure and perhaps now pointless since The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is planning to introduce plain language domain names, such as .scouts or .golf. Any organisation with the will - and of course the money ($185,000, Dh679,000) and the ability to handle a generic top-domain name or gTLD - will be able to submit an application starting in 2010. Having a gTLD gives a company control over who can use what comes after the "dot." For example, Silicon Valley-based Verisign operates both .com and .net.

While ICANN hasn't opened the application process yet, a number of organisations have already announced their intentions to apply. Wolfgang Puck wants .food, Al Gore is looking for .eco, and even the His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, the reigning king of the Zulu nation, has even sent a letter to ICANN regarding .zulu.

"The intent really was to protect communities," said Karla Valente, the director of communications for product services at ICANN. "We tried to go back to the policy originally intended to projecting indigenous communities, geographic communities, and religion communities."

While such plans may appeal to anyone seeking a more common sense approach to naming on the internet, the plan has also spurred a number of controversies. Some think a lack of interest in other gTDLs, such as .net or .biz, shows a lack of demand among the public, and many companies are worried that the inevitable land grab that always follows the release of a new top-level domain will make policing cyber squatters and trademark violators on the internet a much more complex problem.

According to Jothan Frakes, the chief operating officer for Minds + Machines, a company that offers consulting services to anyone looking to set up a top-level domain and whose clients include Doc Eco and Dot Food, there are some naysayers.

"People are asking if there are consumers for this. Everyone wants to set up shop, but who wants to buy there?"

But Frakes points out that 20 years ago, there were those who questioned whether people would even use .com. The new domains are an attempt to elevate the whole industry and make it more than just a business-based industry, he says.

Top-level domain names aren't for everyone though, and Frakes said that even Mind + Machines, which has been approached by hundreds of companies about the new top-level domain name application process, has to tell people that a gTDL may not be the best thing for them.

"Sometimes we even talk people out of it and tell them they have a great idea but it won't not as a top-level domain."

Anyone considering such a venture should keep in mind that those who start a gTLD are actually entering into a contractual business arrangement with ICANN, which includes regulations on the how the domain will be managed and how to maintain a registry of users with websites on that domain.

To help stop domain name speculators moving and buying up names, ICANN has instituted a policy that gives certain groups, such as the Zulu nation, the right to claim gTLD names as a "community" - provided they meet certain qualifications.

ICANN has instituted a four-part test, which looks at factors such as the group's name and size and asks for input from the "community leaders", to determine whether a group qualifies as a community.

"There is a very fine balance there," Valente said. "The current system right now, it might not be 100 percent perfect, but from what I've seen of the development process, we came up with the best process possible between protecting the legitimacy of the community as intended& and not allowing gaming."

Gaming is the industry term used to describe the speculative buying of internet domain names.

But issues are still expected to arise, largely because ICANN's test is seen as being rather strict. In a paper put out by Minds + Machines, the company suggests loosening the four-part test since under the current scheme groups such as the Boy Scouts could fail to qualify for community status under .scout. In that situation, the .scout name could go up for auction with the highest bidder winning the right to the domain.

ICANN admits this isn't the preferred method of allocating names, but it is the best they can offer, according to Valente.

"To find an alternative method that would be fair was quite a challenge," Valenta said, adding that ICANN can't implement value judgments or a lottery. While the final results might not be completely fair, it was at least neutral.

The issue with some is that if a group fails to register a gTLD, such domains could be open to the issues that have plagued .com, such as the inability to register usable names that have been "warehoused", or "parked" sites that exists for no other purpose that to collect advertising revenue when web users stumble across them.