It's mostly just good news for international travelers. Verizon uses a CDMA network. While it works great, it is rather isolated since most of the world uses GSM.
The iPhone 4S is called a "world phone" because it supports both CDMA and GSM standards. Since Verizon is offering to unlock the GSM side of the 4S it means that when you travel to a part of the world that uses GSM standards you can purchase a pre-paid SIM card from a local carrier and use your iPhone without paying for a ridiculously overpriced international plan through Verizon and risking things such as huge overages.