In new world of domains, .anything goes

Google and Amazon are gearing up for battle over a new piece of the Internet: website endings beyond .com. The tech giants are betting that suffixes like .book, .shop or .cloud will give them new ways to organize their operations online, conduct marketing campaigns and sell products to consumers outside the crowded .com space.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based nonprofit group that manages the domain-name system under a contract with the US Commerce Department, is overseeing the distribution of new extensions to the right of the dot. Some, like .beer and .hiphop, got a relatively easy stamp of approval because only one organization applied for them. Other endings have been more contentious. Under ICANN’s rules, if multiple parties want the same suffix and can’t reach a settlement, it goes to auction.