Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Web Addresses Will Gain International Flavor

Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew domains, among others, will have support by 2010: ICANN

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 26, 2009 5:12 PM CDT

(Newser) – In the biggest change ever to the system, Web domains will soon be available in the native scripts of Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, and other non-Latin-based languages. A proposal expected to be approved this week means “Internationalized Domain Names” could be up and running as soon as mid-2010. China and Thailand currently offer support for domains in their languages with non-standard workarounds, ZDNet reports.

“Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based,” said the president of ICANN, which oversees international domain naming. “So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world’s internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread.”

Some domain names using non-Latin characters.
Some domain names using non-Latin characters.   (ICANN)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
To report an error on this story, notify our editors.
A snapshot of the day's best news stories.
 
COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
kyleleitch
Oct 27, 2009 12:49 PM CDT
I wonder if there will be any sort of intertransliteration system so that people who use a roman alphabet can visit non-roman websites?
Carpediem4U
Oct 27, 2009 7:57 AM CDT
Oh noooo..lookout...its socialism!! no it's facism.!!.no no..wait, I'll get it here...it's communism!!!...no no..it's intellectualism!!!..no..wait..it's atheism!!!!....ok..I got it.......wait for it........it's anti americanism and anti englishism and anti-white powerism!! Man its hard being a crude conservative today...too many groups to hate and not enough time to hate em all!...lol....
kyleleitch
Oct 27, 2009 3:07 AM CDT
That's still a lot better than not having any sort of translation system. Silly me, I thought they wouldn't have had that figured out. :P

More Newser Stories

Coming This Week: Dot-Anything

Domain-Name Rule Change 'Brand Owner's Nightmare'


NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   Betty Confidential   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Fark   |   Timelines   |   The Frisky   |   Geek Sugar   |   NewsOne