Internet body opens web to multiple languages
- Added:
- Oct 30, 2009
The Internet will now allow users to create web and e-mail-addresses using non-Latin characters, opening up the Web to billions of people around the world.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has given the green light to the change at its board meeting taking place in Seoul, South Korea.
This would include characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Hebrew, Chinese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic (Russian).
Until now, anyone wanting to set up a website has been forced to include a few characters of Latin script in the address, or domain name, that they choose.
Other scripts, Arabic or Japanese for example, can be used in the first part, but whatever language is used, the address needed to end with Latin alphabet character suffixes such as .com, .gov, .co.uk, .cn.
The new decision by the board's 15 voting members was unopposed and welcomed by applause and a standing ovation. It followed years of debate and testing.
The result clears the way for governments or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning Nov. 16. Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has been among the highest, ICANN officials say.
Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts based on alphabets other than Latin.
The Netimperative view
About time too. Web regualtors need to be more open minded to non US/ euro centric thinking. But watch now for the explosion in cyber squatting. Liberalisation of language is good. Sensible protection for brands and stakeholders is where the thinking should be going.
