.Berlin is tenth new top-level domain of the year

On 8 January, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, announced that '.berlin' has become the tenth generic top-level domain (gTLD) in 2014 to be entered into the Internet's Root Zone, the authoritative database for the Internet, a process termed 'delegation'. 

We're used to seeing top-level domains - a key part of Internet addresses - that end in '.com', '.net' and '.org'. Websites that end in '.asia' and '.aero' are becoming relatively common. But with ICANN's new gTLD Domain Program the number of available gTLDs can grow from 22 to as many as 1,400 new names, or "strings", giving businesses and individuals even more choice in website names. 

The first new gTLDs from the programme were delegated on 23 October 2013. To date, there are 83 new gTLDs, including the Chinese-language 集团 (group) and 中文网 (Chinese network), the more generic '.email' and '.education', as well as relatively specialised gTLDs such as '.glass' and '.coffee'. 

Chinese seems to be the most common language for new gTLDs that do not use Latin script, with seven gTLDs delegated. There is one Arabic gTLD so far, شبكة (web or network), one in Japanese, and two in Cyrillic script.  

The full list of gTLDs submitted tells a different story. Expect to see more gTLDs in non-Latin script come your way in the months and years to come.

View the gTLDs that have successfully been delegated here.