Full story: New internet domains will cost $100k-plus

How do I apply?

You write to Icann from April next year, outlining which domain you would like to buy and what your "business plan" for the name is.

Can anyone apply?

Icann says anyone is eligible for to buy one of the new names, but you need to show how you would make money from them and demonstrate your ability to run the domain.

So can I register my surname?

It is unclear whether someone will be able to register his or her name as a vanity project, especially if there was no demonstrable way of making money from it. It is expected that some names - for instance of those of celebrities - could be registered with a view to creating a business. Icann has not responded to a request for comment on this point.

What do I need to make an application?

A lot of high-powered equipment is required to run a domain - including databases, servers and routers, which manage internet traffic. Verisign, the company which owns and runs the domain .com, for instance, is estimated to have spent more than $100 million building out the .com network

This sounds very different to buying a domain name

It is. 123 Domain Names, a British company, sells .co.uk domain names - or what most of us would think of as web addresses - for £19.99, and .com names for £29.99, but buying a domain name is different from buying a domain.

So what exactly do I get for my $100,000?

Owning what is known as a generic top-level domain - like .com or .biz - would mean you could become a seller of web addresses that fit within that domain. For instance, if you bought .school, then you could sell web addresses to anybody who wanted an address that ended with .school, for instance www.eton.school.

Will anyone want to buy .school addresses - or .water, or .city?

Nobody knows. One way to read Icann's decision to price the new domains at $100,000 is that it doesn't think demand for the new domains will be very strong. It says it simply wants to recoup the $10 million cost of developing the internet's infrastructure to cope with the new domains, and at $100,000 each, that would mean selling 100 domains.

What will be the most valuable domains?

Most experts say it will be generic names that have been popular as websites in existing domains - for instance, .hotel. When the .eu domain was made available in 2006, the most popular applications were for sex.eu, hotel.eu, travel.eu, jobs.eu and hotels.eu. Other domains expected to sell are city names - .nyc and .london - and those of large companies - .coke, .toyota., .mcdonalds.

So I can put in a bid for .sex?

You can, but there's another complication there: Icann has said it reserves the right to reject names on the basis of "morality or public order". Icann has said it does not want to become a regulator of content on the internet, so if it disputes an application on these grounds, it will put the matter to an international arbitration committee. It has already rejected an application for .xxx, a domain the adult entertainment industry has long pushed for.

Is anything already taken?

Yes. As part of a process that began five years ago, Icann introduced a series of sponsored top-level domains, which were bought by industry consortiums. Domains including .jobs, .travel, . mobi - for the mobile industry - and .tel are already gone, as are some other generic domains introduced earlier still, including .biz and .info. The six original domains, introduced in 1985, are .com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .net, and .org.

Could I pinch the name of a well-known company?

No. Icann has developed a sophisticated way of dealing with the problem of "cyber-squatting" by referring to intellectual property. Essentially, if you don't own the trademark in a name, you would not be able to register it. If a name is disputed by two legitimate trademark owners - for instance Polo, by both Ralph Lauren, the clothing company, and Volkswagen, then the name will be auctioned to the highest bidder.

Will this effect the way I use the web?

No. It will just mean that the web can accommodate more websites.

Will it affect search?

No. It will mean the web gets bigger, but Google and other engines will continue to trawl and index the web just as they always have.

How long will it take to register the domain?

The approval process is expected to take 90-100 days.

When will the new domains be up and running?

Icann said it expected that people could start visiting websites on the new domains late in 2009

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