> On June 20, 2011, ICANN's board voted to end most restrictions on the creation of generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) -- at which time 22 gTLDs were available. Companies and organizations would be able to choose essentially arbitrary top-level Internet domains.
> The initial price to apply for a new gTLD was $185,000. ICANN expected the new rules to significantly change the face of the internet. Industry analysts predicted 500–1000 new gTLDs, mostly reflecting names of companies and products, but also cities, and generic names like bank and sport.
> ..Esther Dyson, the founding chairwoman of ICANN, wrote that the expansion "will create jobs [for lawyers, marketers and others] but little extra value."
