Despite the perfectly appropriate criticisms from trademark holders of ICANN’s roll-out of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), there is no denying the potential market power of opening up vast new tracts of Internet real estate.

Even while it may be OK for branded companies to wish they didn’t have to deal with it, the dust that has been kicked up has obscured real value in creating new commercial and community districts on the Web.

The new gTLDs give us the chance to create global marketplaces based on communities of interest. Think about it. For a city promoting tourism, visitors no longer will need to troll thatcityhotel.com or thatcityrestaurant.net or thatcitytransit.ca. It can all be assembled at (dot)thatcity. The metaphor is even more powerful for active, global commercial markets that could rally around domains like .golf or .art or .music (there is already a group working on the last one!).

We are believers in brands and community.