ICANN Welcomes the World

[bwhhisc]

Last week the catchily-named organization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced that it had approved the use of Hindi, Mandarin, Hebrew, Korean, and twelve other languages -- that are not based on the Roman/Latin alphabet -- for use in domain names. It may not seem like much to most people in the USA or Europe, but in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa this news was was momentous.

Consider that you have been told about a source of near unlimited business, entertainment, and information, but to get access to it you have to read Korean... That is how the internet has appeared to the bulk of its users. Typing in domain names in characters you don't understand is a total roadblock for many. With this change the floodgates will likely open, bringing literally millions more users online -- those who have never used Roman characters in their daily lives.

Such an announcement will have implications for the world of web content management and e-commerce for sure. it will likely drive demand for technology to manage the increase in web content and the ever greater lingual fragmentation of that content. Something that will excite vendors for sure. For developers, business users, and implementers (the constituency of CMS Watch) the initial impact may be simply testing that your applications still work with non-Latin characters. Don't assume they do, as though most browsers can support all kinds of character sets, software applications are typically much more limited.

There are so many potential implications to this announcement. Implications that we can currently only guess at, with repercussions that may resonate over the next decade or so. In English-speaking regions we may not even see or even hear of much change, but the rest of the world (most of the world) will be busy building their own web, drawing in billions of new users, and spawning a new set of web teams (many of which will likely be bigger than ours). All of which could nonetheless remain quite invisible to us.

http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1731-ICAAN-Domain-names

[amplify]

Who will be in charge of administering them (all ICANN accredited registrars or just registrars in those regions where the language applies, etc)? Will registrars be able to charge outrageous rates? Are there any policies in effect for it? Will it also have an odd puny code (ie xn--asdf.xn--asdf)? Thanks

[Wot]

Get it yet?

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...t_12416886.htm

[Acro]

One of the most monumental moves by ICANN - towards Internet segregation. We pay those monkeys with our taxes, to travel around the world and produce such quality manure.

[Wot]

One of the most monumental moves by ICANN - towards Internet segregation. We pay those monkeys with our taxes, to travel around the world and produce such quality manure.

Yep, really can't understand why all those foreigners should be able to, or god forbid-even want to the to access the net in their own language- an absolute travesty-just not English.

[Acro]

They have been able to for several years now. That's what IDNs are.
The cherry on the pie is the TLD. Who cares about .ελ for Greece? Surely not me. This is coordinated by the administrators/geeks of these networks' registies in true domain nazi fashion.
Expect an increase in spam from those out-of-reach countries unforeseen. Spoofing, phishing, network attacks. Instead of looking into more important issues, ICANN gets their palms oiled once again.

[MAllie]

Call me naive, but I thought that dotcom was the universally-accepted tld. Will these more specific tlds not limit people to their own areas more? Will I not know immediately I get spam using one of these, whereas before I might have been a little uncertain (until I read the awful English)?

[bwhhisc]

One of the most monumental moves by ICANN - towards Internet segregation. We pay those monkeys with our taxes, to travel around the world and produce such quality manure.

ICANN simply provided all of the languages of the world the opportunity to have URLs in their native languages with native language behind the dot. 80% of the world does not speak English...so this is not a group that would easily find or use any ascii websites.

Call me naive, but I thought that dotcom was the universally-accepted tld. Will these more specific tlds not limit people to their own areas more? Will I not know immediately I get spam using one of these, whereas before I might have been a little uncertain (until I read the awful English)?

.com is a no doubt the top gtld "brand", and it will continue to be used as well as "alias" to the equivalent foreign characters in some languages. What ICANN approved this week was to allow countries to "internationalize after the dot" allowing Top Level Domains (ccTLD) such as .cn, .kr and .jp (china, korea and japan) to be able to have their URLs in their native script. At some point in the future, the gtld's (.com, .net, .biz) will probably do the same. IDNs have actually been in use and existance since 2000 (that is the oldest date you will find on the who.is), but sadly there was little recognition and virtually no Browser support until 2007 with release of IE7, so they really never came into mainstream use.

The BIG DEAL for non-English speaking internet users is that ICANN has now opened up for the root to accept idn.idn (foreign language.foreign lanaguge) domains. It will probably not effect languages such as French, Spanish, German, etc. where .com fits fine. Here are some of the SPECULATIONS of what .com, .net, .cn, .jp, etc. might be aliased to:

Japanese:
.コム : .com
.日本 : .jp
.ネット: .net
Russian:
.Ком : .com
.нет : .net
Chinese:
.中国 : .cn
.公司 : .com.cn
Korean:
.한국 : .kr
.회사 : .com
.그물: .net Bulgarian:
.бг : .bg
Hebrew:
קום. : .com
נט : .net
Arabic:
كوم. : .com (Arabic is right to left reading lanaguage...notice how the dot is on the right side of the script).
نت : .net
Thai:
.คอม: com
.เน็ต .net
.cn already defaults to .中国 if you are viewing from within China.

There will be some "new" cctlds that will be idn.idn, and .com, .net and more are expected to be able to be used as .com or be aliased to their equivalent in most languages.

This "change" will not impact English internet users to a great degree, since YOU will probably continue to use the internet in...ENGLISH.
But for people that use other languages this gives them the opportunity to have URLs that they can read and understand. A boondoggle for advertising and marketing. Although they don't say much about it, some domainers are antsy that they are going to lose traffic to these new names.

[katherine]

The key word here: alias

[bwhhisc]

The key word here: alias

Your catching on....

[fab]

I know a registrar who has been advertising this for a long time, but I agree with Acro on this.

[MAllie]

This "change" will not impact English internet users to a great degree, since YOU will probably continue to use the internet in...ENGLISH.

But for people that use other languages this gives them the opportunity to have URLs that they can read and understand. A boondoggle for advertising and marketing. Although they don't say much about it, some domainers are antsy that they are going to lose traffic to these new names.

I do understand about people from other countries needing their own tlds for their home market, but since so many of them are trying to break into the market in the West they will still need to use English, won't they?

[Gerry]

Google CEO on Web in Five Years: Faster, More Social, More Chinese
BY CALEB JOHNSON — OCT 28TH 2009 AT 1:34PM

Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google, has looked into the crystal ball hidden deep inside the company's headquarters. Besides plenty of dollar signs for Google, Schmidt envisions a drastically different Internet five years from now than the one we know today.

According to ReadWriteWeb, the CEO remarked during a speech atGartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009 last week that the Web of the future will feature much more Chinese-language content, and believe it or not, more social media. Information access will increase, along with bandwidth speeds. Schmidt says broadband will be delivered at rates above 100 megabits per second, effectively erasing the lines between different media -- like TV, radio, and the Web. Bottom line: The debate between user-generated, real-time content and traditional, 'professional' sources will rage on, as speedy broadband lines equal more -- and more immediate -- accessibility to real-time information. Anyone, anywhere will have the ability to witness and upload an event, making it worldwide in seconds, effectively changing today's Webscape.

Schmidt might not be off the mark. Recent news about Web addresses appearing in non-Latin languages could mean that English is losing its global chokehold on URLs. That, coupled with Bing and Google's search results showing tweets alongside New York Times or CNN articles, might just indicate that Schmidt's future starts next week. [From: ReadWriteWeb]

[Banned: dn-101]

Will I get my own tld for Frangle?
And for my doggie too?

[Acro]

"ICANN gave the world" nothing but the opportunity to split the Internet into separate highways that don't talk to eachother. The beauty of the Top Level Domain system ensured that there was at least one common element - the suffix - used alongside every domain, denoting either its function (e.g. com/net/org) or its locale (ccTLDs). The addition of the IDN layer introduced for many the ability to utilize domains in several local languages. So far so good. Now, in my example, after ICANN opens the gates to localized TLD's - Greece (Ελλάς) uses ".ελ" as a new suffix. What for? What is the purpose of typing the first two letters of the ISO XXXX code in Greek? Nobody - other than the obsessed bureaucrats of the Greek registry - has any use for "whatever.ελ" - simply because it looks and sounds silly. To claim that 80% of the world doesn't use English is simply ludicrous; in fact, 100% of the world's Internet users have been using English to create the .com/.cn/.ru etc. suffix. So those of you that see this as a liberation from English - you are full of it.

[Gerry]

This segregates the world more than anything I can think of.

Eventually, I see the web evolving around spoken language(s) with auto-direction to a target. No URL necessary.

[DNWizardX9]

"ICANN gave the world" nothing but the opportunity to split the Internet into separate highways that don't talk to eachother. The beauty of the Top Level Domain system ensured that there was at least one common element - the suffix - used alongside every domain, denoting either its function (e.g. com/net/org) or its locale (ccTLDs). The addition of the IDN layer introduced for many the ability to utilize domains in several local languages. So far so good. Now, in my example, after ICANN opens the gates to localized TLD's - Greece (Ελλάς) uses ".ελ" as a new suffix. What for? What is the purpose of typing the first two letters of the ISO XXXX code in Greek? Nobody - other than the obsessed bureaucrats of the Greek registry - has any use for "whatever.ελ" - simply because it looks and sounds silly. To claim that 80% of the world doesn't use English is simply ludicrous; in fact, 100% of the world's Internet users have been using English to create the .com/.cn/.ru etc. suffix. So those of you that see this as a liberation from English - you are full of it.

You are just pissed you didn't buy IDNs years ago ;-)
Move along now .... ;-)

[bwhhisc]

I do understand about people from other countries needing their own tlds for their home market, but since so many of them are trying to break into the market in the West they will still need to use English, won't they?

With a billion people in China alone having an estimated 120,000,000 + internet users you will get the whole spectrum of internet users.

To answer your question in a simple manner....for international businesses worldwide, it would be huge to have your keywords as both "product.com", "product.net" as well as "product".idn in a few dozen major languages.

But for the vast majority, IDNs will provide the simple ease and pleasure to be able to type in and surf in your own familiar native language. All in all pretty simple concept that has been about 10 years in the making.

[Acro]

DNX, I far from pissed. If IDN's work for you, well give yourself a raise. But instead of being a troll, I am waiting for your logical counter-position to mine. Explain to me, with a rational statement, what good is it that "dot ruski" or whatever you'd call it in Russian is progressive versus ".ru" - it's all obviously yet another ICANN clusterf*ck.

Doc, "take me to your leader" comes to mind.

bwhhisc, in what language do you plan to have your "product"? If I sell "superflex" how would that transcribe into Russian? I guess ΥπερΦλεξ.ελ would be superb to sell in Greece, according to your logic.

[katherine]

I think this could be a good thing for type-in.
For example many Japanese people are not comfortable with ASCII so they will routinely use search engines to reach the site they're looking for, possibly bookmark it for later use.
Instead they could type in the full URL in their native character set.
Let's face it, IDNs are a hybrid thing today - 日本.com looks odd. At least 日本.コムis consistent. For sure I would have a hard time fumbling with a Japanese keyboard
Aliasing is complementing existing TLDs, these are no new TLDs.
I'm sure there are opportunities but IDN.IDN will probably not take off in all non-ASCII nations. China, Russia seem to be on track.
TBH I have always thought one of the main uses for IDNs should be capturing type-in traffic.