On 20th June 2011, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has approved the expansion of top-level domains in Singapore which will help to big companies and organisation to create domain names for their brands (.nike or .nokia) or more generic names (.blue or .sports). ICANN’s TLD expansion plan was first announced three years ago on 26th June 2008, at the 32nd ICANN Meeting in Paris.

According to ICANN, as per new program between 300 and 1000 new TLDs could be created per year.

ICANN’s Board approves the New gTLD Program during a special session held on Monday, 20 June 2011 in Singapore. (Photo Source: ICANN)

Applications for new gTLDs will be accepted from 12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012. Subsequent application periods will become available in the future. The evaluation fee from prospective applicants is $185,000. According to the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, a $5,000 deposit is required “at the time the user requests an application slot within TAS, and a payment of the remaining $180,000 submitted with the full application.”

Mozilla Firefox browser has overtaken Internet Explorer in Europe in December 2010, a web analytics firm StatCounter said.

As many of you know the Firefox is open-source browser tool 38.1 % of European marketing share and Internet Explorer move down to 37.5 percent. Google Chrome also gaining market share  in Europe to 14.6 % from 5.1 percent.

"This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share," Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter chief executive, said in a statement. He also said "We are probably seeing the impact of the agreement between European Commission competition authorities and Microsoft, to offer EU users a choice and menu of browsers from March last year."

Globally, Internet Explorer’s share slipped to 46.9 percent in December, while Firefox was at 30.8 percent and Google was at 14.9 percent, StatCounter said.