U.S. agency criticizes Web domain name plan

A proposal to create hundreds of new Internet domain names as alternatives to ".com" has suffered a setback as a key U.S. government agency warned that the plan might not benefit consumers or promote competition.

The Internet’s key oversight body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, had planned to start accepting bids for new Internet suffixes early next year in what would be the first major overhaul of a decades-old addressing system.

But in a letter sent to ICANN last week, a top Commerce Department official, Meredith Baker, said it wasn’t clear "whether the potential consumer benefits outweigh the potential costs." Baker heads the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2008-12-22-domain-name-plan-criticized_N.htm