NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said Friday it approved the .xxx domain for adult web sites after years of nixing the idea.

A spokesman for ICANN, which holds jurisdiction over top-level domains, confirmed the go-ahead.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/18/technology/icann_approves_xxx/index.htm

Does this mean that all XXX sites will be required to use that extension or will it only be an option to select that extension?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/18/technology/icann_approves_xxx/index.htm

Does this mean that all XXX sites will be required to use that extension or will it only be an option to select that extension?

There's no way they could make it an enforceable requirement even if they wanted to. The definition is what is XXX and what isn't is way too open to interpretation.

However, I've thought this was a good idea for a long time. Personally though, I think most sites will just adopt an XXX extension along with .com, .net, .org, .tv etc. and they'll all just point to the same site.

Brain's nailed it. Nobody who has put time, dobbers and energy into building traffic to whateverdomainname.com is going to discard that in favor of a new whateverdomainname.xxx. They'll just add the latter name to their stable, promo it as well and reap bennies from both names.

Few give up a good traffic domain name, at least not on purpose.