'.Apple,' '.auto' among Internet suffixes proposed

Proposals for Internet addresses ending in ".pizza," `'.space" and ".auto" are among the nearly 2,000 submitted as part of the largest expansion in the online address system.

Apple, Sony and American Express are among companies seeking names with their brands. The expansion will allow suffixes that represent hobbies, ethnic groups, corporate brand names and more. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers announced the proposals for Internet suffixes — the ".com" part of an Internet address — in London on Wednesday. Among the 1,930 proposals for 1,409 different suffixes, the bulk came from North America and Europe. If approved, the new suffixes would rival ".com" and about 300 others now in use. Companies would be able to create separate websites and separate addresses for each of their products and brands, even as they keep their existing ".com" name. Businesses that joined the Internet late and found desirable ".com" names taken would have alternatives. Nearly half of the proposals — 911 — were from North America and another 675 came from Europe. Only 17 proposals came from Africa and 24 came from Latin America and the Caribbean — areas where Internet use is relatively low. One surprise came from the Asia-Pacific region, which had 303 proposals, or 16 percent of the total. Many proposals were duplicates. Suffixes in contention are likely to include ".bank," `'.secure" and ".web." ICANN is encouraging competing bidders to work out an agreement. The organization will hold an auction if the parties fail to reach a compromise. Of the 1,930 proposals, 751 were for 230 different suffixes, while the remaining 1,179 were unique.