Forget '.com', are you ready for '.google', or '.bank'?

Think of it as a cyberspace land rush, as companies and others try to stake claims to websites ending with names like ".bank"

Come next year, an era when site names ended in a handful of predictable ways like ".com" or ".gov" draws to a close. ICANN, which stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, says it will accept applications for domains with new suffixes that could range from corporate names (like ".Apple" or ".Sony") to more generic terms (like ".bank" or ".supermarket").

Don't expect that all those ".com" sites will simply fade away, or that every celebrity will start a site with a name like "Lady.Gaga." Some pop stars may try to do that, but ICANN has made the process of launching a new suffix cumbersome and costly, to put some limits on the proliferation of web suffixes.

What's certain, though, is that companies and other entities will now be thinking hard about the new "your-name-here" opportunity. And on the flip side, they'll be pondering the potential risks of not joining the stampede.

Web experts have said that ICANN’s proposals, to essentially open up a new online market-place, where new addresses are available for those brands and individuals who have lost their identity online in the first and second wave of the web, could be significant.

It will cost £162,000 to apply, and individuals or organizations will be asked to show a legitimate claim to the name they are buying.

Credit: Material from the Telegraph and Wire Services were used in this article.