I've left this one a few days as I've been waiting to see whether there's a consensus. Last week ICANN overhauled the rules on Internet domain name, permanently - there's a BBC report on it here.
Without seeing any of the new domain names just yet it's difficult to tell just what the impact is going to be. Ideally people will simply register those names that clarify exactly who they are - so maybe daniweb.com could become daniweb.tech, for example, and my own clapperton.co.uk could become clapperton.xxx because I'm in a cruel mood and want to disappoint people.
Flippancy aside, the real issue is going to be the cost. If there are going to be many more domain names and the idea that people can even use their trademarks as domains, the permutations are going to be substantial. The people quoted on the BBC site reckon it'll be hundreds of dollars rather than the existing tens or even single figures.
This isn't going to help the smaller business at all. And even the larger organisations of this world started off as a much smaller business. At a time when the economy is shrinking rather than growing on both sides of the Atlantic, this isn't great news.