Alternative Top Level Domains

ICANN is the international body that oversees and controls the allocation of top-level domains around the world. Recently, they allowed for the creation of seven new international (non-country-specific) domain names.
These 7 new top domains are as follows:-.aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, .pro. The good thing about these new top domains is that they are officially recognized and so therefore they will "work" all over the world, in any browser or other software. (While you might expect that ALL domain names will work in all browsers, you'll see in the next few sections that this is not the case).
There are a number of companies in the "alternative" top domain business. Essentially, their systems work something like New.net in that additional changes or software are required to make their domain names resolve, except that generally unlike New.net they have not forged many (or any!) partnerships with ISPs and hosting firms, so that the number of people who can access these "alternative" top domains worldwide numbers in the hundreds or at most in the thousands.