The association responsible for domain name allocation has asked the industry for help in introducing new top-level naming extensions, and '.shop' may be a popular vote.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) stressed it wants to introduce the extensions to '.com' and '.org' in a "measured and responsible manner", and wants comments ahead of its meeting in Japan next month.

The process for submitting formal proposals will begin in August, and a final decision on the names is expected in November.

According to a recent poll by US domain name registrar NameSecure, '.shop' was voted the most popular extension by 18 per cent of the 3500 respondents. That was followed by '.web' for web-related activities (14 per cent), '.fam' for family use (13 per cent), and '.info' for providers of information (12 per cent).

One of the issues to be examined by Icann includes concerns over intellectual property ownership. The organisation said it would limit the number of new top-level domains that will initially be introduced.