The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers voted overwhelmingly for the proposal to allow the introduction of new website domain suffixes by private companies, enabling major firms to replace ".com" with their own brand. The voting took place at a meeting in Singapore.

"This is the biggest change to domain names since the creation of '.com' 26 years ago," said Theo Hnarakis, chief executive of Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services, a California-based company that provides online branding services.

New order means that businesses would not be restricted to the list of generic top level domains (gTLDs) that include .com, .net and .org when they apply to register a website address.

Some observers believe that global companies like Apple, Toyota and BMW could be in the vanguard of launching websites with their own domain names.

ICANN board member Sebastien Bachollet, who was in favour of the proposal, said "some people feel that the new gTLDs will cause confusion."

But he added: "I trust we have the tools to ensure the phase of stress will be brief."