Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) continue to roll out, making it easier for everyone to use the Internet. In its meeting August 5th, ICANN’s Board of Directors approved five more countries/territories to use their national scripts in the last portion of Internet address names.

These six IDN ccTLDs are not yet final. There are still a few more steps to be completed before they are ready to go live. But once completed, people in these areas will be able to type their non-Latin scripts in the top-level domain (TLD) part of an Internet address name. That follows the dot, such as dot-cn or dot-org.

For details please see: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/string-evaluation-completion-en.htm and http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/

CNNIC has yesterday announced that “.中国” country-code Top-Level-Domain is now ready and accessible from outside China.

One example website is CNNIC’s URL in Chinese:　http://中国互联网络信息中心.中国/

as well as 新浪．中国

IDN stands for Internationalised Domain Name, and refers to any domain names that contains non ASCII character.
ICANN’s IDN ccTLD Fast track process aims to introduce country code top-level domains such as 。中国 into the Internet, in recognition of the diverse languages of the world’s Internet users.

Note that Chinese cc TLDs were already available in China, but are not yet accessible outside of China. This is because ICANN had only recently standardised and accepted non-latin cc TLDs.

source: webscannotes.com

Last week DnJournal reported рф.com cyrillic IDN sold for $60k in private deal.

DNJournal:

The #2 domain was a big IDN sale. рф.com was sold by Bruce Caley for $60,000 in a private transaction. The interest in this domain stems from the fact that .рф is the new Russian language (Cyrillic) IDN TLD using the Russian characters that sound like “RF” for Russian Federation.

ICANN has delegated five more internationalized domain names for top level country code domain names.

Yesterday the ICANN board approved a resolution delegating two top level domains for Sri Lanka and one for Thailand:

Delegation of IDN ccTLDs:

1. Sri Lanka

Whereas, Sri Lanka is a country currently listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard.

Whereas, .ලංකා (“Lanka”), encoded as “xn--fzc2c9e2c”; and .இலங்கை (“Ilangai”), encoded as “xn--xkc2al3hye2a”; are both strings that have been deemed to appropriately represent Sri Lanka through the IDN Fast Track process.

Whereas, ICANN has received requests for delegation of .ලංකා and .இலங்கை to LK Domain Registry.

Whereas, ICANN has reviewed the requests, and has determined that the proposed delegations would be in the interests of the local and global Internet communities.

RESOLVED (2010.08.05.03), the proposed delegation of .ලංකා to LK Domain Registry is approved.

RESOLVED (2010.08.05.04), the proposed delegation of .இலங்கை to LK Domain Registry is approved.

2. Thailand

Whereas, the Thailand is a country currently listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard.

Whereas, .ไทย (“Thai”), encoded as “xn--o3cw4h”, is a string that has been deemed to appropriately represent Thailand through the IDN Fast Track process.

Whereas, ICANN has received a request for delegation of .ไทย to the Thai Network Information Center Foundation.

Whereas, ICANN has reviewed the request, and has determined that the proposed delegation would be in the interests of the local and global Internet communities.

RESOLVED (2010.08.05.05), the proposed delegation of the .ไทย domain to the Thai Network Information Center Foundation is approved.

A number of Arabic domain names were also delegated:

فلسطين (“Falasteen”), encoded as “xn--ygbi2ammx” to Occupied Palestinian Authority

تونس (“Tunis”), encoded as “xn--pgbs0dh” to Tunisia

الاردن (“al-Ordon”), encoded as “xn--mgbayh7gpa” to Jordan

source: Jose, idnf.com member

Bulgaria is to appeal ICANN’s rejection of .бг, the Cyrillic version of its existing country code top-level domain, .bg.

Technology minister Alexander Tsvetkov said that the Bulgarian government will file a reconsideration request with ICANN, according to a DarikNews.bg interview.

The requested IDN ccTLD .бг was rejected because it looks quite a bit like Brazil’s existing ASCII ccTLD, .br, which could create confusion for Brazilians.

ICANN/IANA does not talk openly about ccTLD delegation issues. As far as I know, .бг is the only IDN ccTLD on the current fast-track program to be rejected on string-similarity grounds.

The Darik News interview, via Google Translate, reports Tsvetkov saying he “believes that this domain is the best way for Bulgaria” and that the government “will ask for reconsideration”.

Asked about the clash with Brazil, he said Bulgaria “will not quit” in its pursuit of its first-choice ccTLD.

Brazil has not been silent on the issue.

During the meeting on Tuesday between the ICANN board and its Governmental Advisory Committee, Brazil’s representative praised ICANN for rejecting .бг:

Brazil would like to express its support to the recent board’s decision about avoiding graphic similitude between new country codes and current country codes in Latin. This is particularly important inasmuch as any graphic confusion might facilitate phishing practices and all the problems related to it.

Many thanks to the Bulgarian reader who referred me to this Darik News interview.

For any other Bulgarians reading this, the interview also appears to contain lots of other really juicy information not related to domain names. Check it out.

source: http://www.domainincite.com

Brussels, Belgium… 25 June 2010… Millions of Chinese language users will soon be able to access the
Internet using Chinese script following a decision today by ICANN’s Board of Directors to approve a set of
Chinese language internationalized domain names.

“This approval is a significant change for Chinese language users worldwide,” said Rod Beckstrom, President
and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN. “One fifth of the world speaks Chinese and that means we just
increased the potential online accessibility for roughly a billion people.”

The new IDN country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and the associated organizations approved by the
Board are:

• CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center)
• HKIRC (Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited)
• TWNIC (Taiwan Network Information Center).

The ruler of Dubai has made use of the establishment of non-Latin characters in domain names.

محمد-بن-راشد.امارات

Dubai leader Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid has become the first Arab leader to take advantage of the introduction of non-Latin characters in the titles of web addresses, which became available earlier this month.

Following the growing use of Arabic on the Web, domain names on the Internet can now be spelled out in Arabic and other languages using non-Latin letters. The ruler of Dubai, known for his fondness of social media, has set up his own website with an Arabic web address.

“This remarkable achievement reflects His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum’s keenness to promote the Arabic language, and reaffirms the United Arab Emirates’ deep-rooted Arab identity,” said a statement from the media office of the government of Dubai.

When the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in charge of coordinating the unique address of every website, established the first URLs with non-Latin characters, a major reason was increased Internet usage in the Arab world.

“Arabic is among the most highly used languages on the Internet today. The Middle East has an average Internet penetration of just over 20 percent, and shows a big potential for growth,” said an ICANN statement. “Users in the region will now have easier access to the Internet, with the ability to use their primary language for the entire domain name.”

This has made it possible to use مصر (Egypt), السعودية  (Saudi Arabia) and امارات (United Arab Emirates) at the end of domain names.

“I believe the use of Arabic characters to define Internet addresses is highly significant for the diffusion of web services in the Middle East, where language barriers have always hindered expansions,” Muhammad Ayish, Professor of Communication at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, told The Media Line.

“The fact that three Arab countries are making use of the recent ICANN decision to allow non-Latin domain names,” he said, “is quite encouraging for a region that increasingly sees the net as central for realizing its broad knowledge society aspirations.”

“Of course, there are some problems that have yet to be resolved, such as the fact that Arabic starts from right to left and that e-mail recipients in non-Arab countries may not be able to use Arabic-based domains due to language problems,” Ayish said.

“In many ways, this development is seen as an assertion of cultural identity in virtual space,” he concluded.

However, influential Emirati blogger BuJ Al-Arab doubts this new change on the World Wide Web will have a profound effect.

“Personally, I don’t think the addition of Arabic domain names will make much difference for me,” BuJ Al-Arab told The Media Line.

“I prefer to keep the system as it is really. People prefer standardization rather than going off in many routes,” BuJ Al-Arab said. “English is the undisputed global language, so why steer away from the characters that are used in English.”

“Instead, an Arabic domain name might be the answer for Arabic proper-nouns that can only be translated phonetically or when a proper translation might not serve a business purpose,” BuJ Al-Arab said.

Written by Adam Gonn

source: themedialine.org