The decision by ICANN to open up unlimited top-level domain names is going to make life a lot more complex for any business with a web presence.

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is responsible for controlling the internet’s naming structure. It decides which address extensions are allowed and oversees the global network of domain name servers that keep the whole thing humming along.

At a meeting in Paris last week, ICANN decided to throw caution to the wind and effectively remove any restrictions on what can be used as a top-level domain. So, rather than being limited to a .com, .org, .au address and the like, from next year you’ll be able to register anything you please.

Expect to see the likes of .pepsi, .microsoft and .google before too long, as well as a vast array of generic domains. There’s sure to be everything from .pizza and .florist to .melbourne and .porn. The options will literally be endless.

As if that wasn’t enough, ICANN has also given the green light to having domains in characters other that the current Latin alphabet. Those from other alphabets, such as Japanese and Chinese will also be allowed.

While this all sounds great for the liberalisation of the internet, it’s going to make things tougher for businesses trying to protect their turf.

As well as trying to secure the .com version of their address together with the country-specific version of wherever they happen to be operating, a raft of new addresses will soon be required.

If you’re running Joe’s Pizza shop with the address of www.joesbestpizza.com and have also registered the .com.au variant, what happens when someone registers the .pizza domain? And what about .homedelivery, .fastfood and .tasty to boot?

Businesses that need to capture as much web traffic as possible will have to dig deep and lock in as many variations as they can – another expense most can certainly do without.

Sure, it might mark the democratisation of the internet, but the ICANN decision will have a large sting in its tail.

If you’re anything like me, the first thing you do when you sit down at the desk each morning is wade through vast amounts of digital dross.

Aside from the interminable spam messages (most of which thankfully get caught by the filter) there are news summaries, press releases, event invitations, RSS feeds and general messages. By the time I’ve finished my email triage it feels like half the day has passed me by.

The problem’s not new, but it’s certainly not getting any better. In fact growing numbers of employers are becoming concerned about the amount of time their staff spend dealing with email, and they don’t know what to do. They might have been able to block Facebook and YouTube, but they can’t exactly take the same approach to email.

Now the very corporations that caused the problem in the first place are actively trying to find a solution. The likes of IBM, Microsoft, Intel and Google are putting their collective heads together in a concerted effort to make information overload a thing of the past.

The companies have set up a not-for-profit group that will embark on research and offer advice to those who feel they are drowning in the digital ocean.

Called, not surprisingly, the Information Overload Research Group the group’s stated mission is to “...build awareness of the world’s greatest challenge to productivity ...”. The group's site contains pointers to white papers on the topic as well as practical tips.

At the moment there are only five tips listed, but the group promises many more will be forthcoming. They include things like turning email notifications off, limiting CCs and replies and designating specific blocks of time to deal with messages.

IORG is planning an initial meeting on July 15 in New York. During the event delegates will review recent research and discuss the latest corporate ideas on how to deal with email and other online information flows.

I, for one, wish them every success. Looking at my inbox, I need all the help I can get.

The rekindled web browser battle will crank up a notch this week with the release of Firefox 3.0, but I just can’t muster any excitement I’m afraid.

To me, web browsers are like operating systems – the sooner we don’t have to care about them the better. The day they just sit in the background and let us do what we need to do, quickly and efficiently, will be a happy day indeed.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying a good web browser is unimportant. I just believe it should do its job invisibly - acting as a window to the online content and services I want. And that’s about it.

Just as I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the version of firmware that runs my car engine’s management systems, I don’t want to invest a lot of brain power pondering browsers. They should just be slick, reliable and secure.

Of course, the reason Firefox is getting such attention is because its primary rival, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, is none of these things. It’s bloated, prone to unexpected crashes, and has security holes you could put your fist through.

As a result Firefox is enjoying rapidly growing popularity. According to some industry estimates it’s already captured a worldwide market share of some 17 per cent and the new version should push this even higher.

This is great news as any market benefits from competition and it might cause Microsoft to lift its game and create a browser that’s actually up to the task. We can but hope.

Meantime, if you’re yet to give Firefox a try, let the release of version 3.0 be a reason you do. According to preliminary reports, it’s faster and more user friendly than IE, and less likely to suddenly shut down just as you’re checking a bank balance or entering data into a corporate database.

But, like me, also look forward to the day when you won’t have to think or care what browser you’re using. It will just work, so you can get on and do whatever it is you need to do. Hopefully that day is not too far away.

It’s easy to become blasé about internet security threats, but if you find yourself infected by a new one that’s just appeared, you’ll have a very expensive problem on your hands.

Discovered by security specialist Kaspersky Lab , the virus uses a virtually unbreakable 1024-bit algorithm to encrypt all the data on your PC. The only way to regain access is to pay the anonymous author a hefty ransom.

Called Gpcode, the virus encrypts a range of files including Word documents, PDFs, text and image files. While such internet-borne viruses are not new, the massive strength of this latest version means it poses a very real threat to both business and consumer internet users.

According to Kaspersky Lab, its security researchers have been able to break previous incarnations of the virus because they had used either 260-bit or 330-bit algorithms to encrypt data. However this latest 1024-bit version has them worried as they haven’t been able to come close to cracking it.

Like most virus attacks, this one is most likely to come in the form of a spam email message with an attachment. Clicking on the attachment installs a Trojan install application which then downloads the Gpcode virus from a website.

Once it’s locked up your files, any attempt to open them triggers a message telling you to email a particular address to arrange ‘purchase’ of a decryption tool.

The bottom line is that, if you get infected, you’ll have to choose between paying the ransom demand or waving goodbye to your data. Not a nice choice to have to make.

This latest online threat makes it even more critical to ensure internet security software is up-to-date and that you resist clicking on attachments from unknown sources.

Kaspersky Labs urges anyone hit by the virus to contact them with details of when the attack took place and which web sites the user had been visiting at the time.

Barely a day goes by without some discussion in technology and business circles about the poor state of broadband services in Australia. Now, a new report doesn’t make things look any better.

Grandly named The State of the Internet, the report was released last week by online content distribution company Akamai. It gives a snap shot of a range of online trends, including access speeds, in countries around the world.

Akamai is well positioned to report on such things. While it’s not a well-known consumer brand, the company serves much of the rich media content enjoyed by internet users around the world. It has high-capacity servers in strategic locations and is constantly monitoring the performance of the global computer network to ensure its hosted content gets to those who are looking for it.

I came across a copy of the report during the week, and was keen to find out how Australia ranked in global terms when it came to factors such as internet penetration and connection speeds. Unfortunately, it didn’t make for happy reading. In fact, in the entire report, Australia is mentioned exactly zero times.

One interesting metric listed was the number of unique IP addresses per head of population in countries around the world. Topping the list was Sweden with 0.4 IPs per head, followed by Norway and Iceland with 0.37 per head. Other countries in the top 10 included the Cayman Islands, Denmark, British Virgin Islands and the United States. Australia was nowhere to be seen.

Another metric was instances of high-speed broadband (defined as 5Mbps or above) connections as a proportion of all internet connections. Topping this list was South Korea where 64% of all connections were deemed fast. This was followed by Japan (48%), Hong Kong (35%) and Sweden (29%). Again, Australia was nowhere to be seen in the top-10 list.

Sure, we’re a small country, but can’t we do better than this? The sooner all the talk about optic fibre roll-outs and national competition actually produces something tangible, the better it will be for all of us.