The internet could be set for its biggest shake up in years. Net regulators are currently in talks over the possibility of relaxing the rules on top level domain names. Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org. Relaxation of these rules would allow companies to turn their branding into domain names, and ending the long feud over the possibility of having .xxx. The cost of some of these domains is expected to be high so this could offset a possible domain gold rush. For seo this could have some interesting outcomes. It will depend on how much trust Google allocates to these new domains.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7468855.stm