PARIS — During a general meeting Thursday, the board of directors for the non-profit body that oversees technical coordination of the internet approved a recommendation that could introduce a virtually unlimited number of new domain extensions to the World Wide Web’s addressing system.A final version specifying how the implementation will take place must pass muster with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ board before any changes to the internet’s addressing system will take place. ICANN expects the final version to be published in early 2009.

“The board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity,” ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Twomey said.

“The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net. It’s a massive increase in the ‘real estate’ of the Internet.”

Currently, users have a limited range of 21 top-level domains to choose from, with names like “dot-com,” “dot-org,” “dot-net” and “dot-info.” The proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. ICANN expects applicants will apply for targeted community strings — such as “dot-gay” for the gay community, “dot-med” for hospitals and “dot-church” for religious groups and organizations — as well as generic strings like “dot-brandname” or “dot-yournamehere.” An ICANN spokesman said interested consortiums already want to establish city-based top level domain, like “dot-nyc” for New York City, “dot-berlin” and “dot-paris.”

“One of the most exciting prospects before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world,” said ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush. “This is going to be very important for the future of the internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia.”

The present system supports only 37 Roman characters, so additional characters must be implemented in order for languages that are not based on Latin to work.

The potential for previously rejected TLDs — like “dot-xxx,” “dot-sex” and “dot-kids” — were not specifically addressed by the proposal or during the meeting, but the measure could have an effect on the independent review petition recently filed with the International Centre for Dispute Resolution by ICM Registry LLC. The petition requests a three-person panel of the ICDR determine whether ICANN acted in bad faith when in March 2007 it rejected ICM’s bid to operate the proposed dot-xxx sponsored TLD. ICM spent more than three years and reportedly more than $4 million attempting to secure ICANN’s approval for the sTLD, despite heavy opposition from the adult industry, ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee and federal governments worldwide.

Although generic terms related to sexual content were not addressed, the ICANN board did indicate offensive extensions — most curse words, ethnically insensitive words and euphemisms for bodily functions, for example — would be evaluated under an objection-challenge process “based on public morality and order.” Objections will be overseen by an international arbitration body utilizing criteria based on provisions in a number of international treaties, an ICANN spokesman said. ICANN itself will not make the decisions.

ICANN hopes to begin considering a limited first round of applications for new TLDs available during the second quarter of 2009. An ICANN spokesman said additional application rounds probably will follow relatively quickly after the close of the initial round. As with the current domain-name-registration system, trademarks will not be reserved automatically, but trademark owners will be able to have their arguments for protection considered under a mechanism established for that purpose.