The world could face a shortage of domain names in less than three years, a new report on the future of the internet economy by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development argues.
According to the OECD, nearly 85% of all available internet addresses are already in use, and if current trends continue, by 2011 we are likely to have run out of addresses entirely.
The problem, according to the OECD, is that we are all still stuck on an older generation internet protocol called Ipv4, which limits the number of addresses that can be issued.
The OECD wants business and government to upgrade equipment and systems to a new protocol developed over the 1990s called IPv6, which apparently hasn’t happened so far because of costs associated with the switchover.
In the meantime, your decision all those years ago to get your first.lastname@hotmail.com address is looking better by the day. Could internet addresses be the high value property of the 21st century.
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