My article on Business Insider: 10 Myths About The New Top-Level Domains
 

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-my...domains-2011-8

I would include .xxx in my comments about the extensions themselves. I personally don't think it will result in much due to the adult community not wanting to adopt it (and for good reason - it's simply not necessary and we all know it's set to pigeonhole adult sites to wind up screwing them later). There's no gold rush on them with their pre-reg system - multiple pre-regs on a domain will result in an auction, which in turn will result in very few bargains, and any sort of melee in registrations upon launch will be to pick up the leftover scraps.

Another new TLD example - there have been recent articles on PIR (.org registry) looking to apply for .ngo in this initial round of new extensions. My thought was "would a new NGO then register the new .ngo, register the already established and well-known .org which NGOs currently base themselves on, or both?" Even new extensions like these that do "serve a purpose" may still not really be necessary and will cause confusion more than anything.

Anyways, feel free to share your thoughts. I think if the new TLD program didn't have the prohibitive cost or limit applications, it would have been much more interesting and probably would have changed the domain landscape immediately once it took effect. As it is, I think the massive change won't take place for likely 8-10 years if not more. ICANN has said the $185k initial cost and ongoing costs is to cover their costs, and given it took them several years to hash out this new TLD program, I don't see costs being lowered any time soon.

I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on how the initial round of these extensions do.