Internet running out of IP addresses

The internet is running out of addresses.

With everything from smartphones to internet-linked appliances and cars getting online, the group entrusted with organising the web is running out of the 'IP' numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic.

Google engineer Lorenzo Colitti says one solution is to switch to a standard called IPv6 which would allow trillions of internet addresses, the current IPv4 standard only provides about 4 billion.

He says the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has been calling for a change to IPv6 for years.

Google, Facebook and other major internet players will add IPv6 addresses to their systems in a one-day trial run on June 8 to let all parties involved check for trouble spots.