Domain Registration Related News
International Domain Names on the way from
Nominet
June 2005
Domain names worldwide are currently limited to
using the letters A-Z, digits 0-9 and hyphens. It
currently excludes the use of accented letters,
other character sets or symbols. This potentially
leads to difficulties in creating local domain
names in, for example, Asian or Eastern European
languages where symbols are frequently used.
IDN has the potential to allow internationalised
domain names that accommodate many more of the
writing systems used around the world. This could
allow domain names with accents (), with letters
from other alphabets () or even comprising
symbols, such as Chinese, Russian or Greek.
Pro-IDN arguments question why businesses on the
internet should be prevented from selecting
localised domain names, particularly if the
organisation is targeting a specific local market
whose first language may not be English. There is
also the sentiment that the Internet is a global
resource, and should not continue to be dominated
by Western organisations.
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