A new era of Web site naming begins, when Internet policymakers start accepting applications for hundreds - perhaps thousands - of new domain name extensions such as .hotel and .paris.

Debate around a controversial plan to add hundreds of new domain name extensions to the Internet infrastructure has reached a fever pitch in the nation's capital, as critics engage in a last-ditch effort to scrap or delay the plan, which is scheduled to launch Jan. 12.

In 2011, the increasingly mobile and socially networked world of technology became more intertwined than ever with politics and the law. Patent wars shaped competition in tablets and smartphones, hacktivists attacked a widening array of political and corporate targets, repressive regimes unplugged citizens from the Internet, and the U.S. government moved to block the giant merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA. With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world lost a technology icon who redefined the computer, entertainment and consumer electronics industries. These are the IDG News Service's picks for the top 10 technology stories of the year:

Two of the world's biggest porn companies have teamed up to sue the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and ICM Registry over their introduction of the .XXX top-level domain.

Trademark owners can prevent their names from being misused in the new .xxx top-level domain by blocking these names, ICM Registry, the Florida-based registry operator for the .xxx top-level domain said.

The board of directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved an increase in the number of Internet domain name endings, known as generic top-level domains (gTLDs), from the current 22.

A group led by former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde is forming to develop a peer-to-peer-based alternative to today's ICANN-controlled DNS system, according to a blog posted on Tuesday.

Pornography will have its own top-level domain, dot-XXX, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided Friday.

This is a bad day for the English language, after ICANN approved non-Latin characters for use in Internet domain names. Having invented the Internet--40 years ago yesterday--the U.S. has given away whatever advantage it offers English-speakers.

The .eu TLD (top-level domain name) for Web sites allows non-ASCII characters in its Web addresses, after it opened up the TLD to addresses written in Cyrillic and Greek letters, the European Commission said Friday.