Opening Up Domain Names to Non-Roman Languages

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Icann, the group that regulates domain names on the Internet, is about to open up a whole new world of URL’s to the international community. Currently, domain names can only be registered in the Roman alphabet, which has left the number of domain names in the world limited. This move will open up millions of new domain names to users around the globe.

“The IDN [International Domain Names] program will encompass close to one hundred thousand characters, opening up the Internet to billions of potential users around the globe,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers at Icann.

At the current moment, only the extensions are being registered. Individual users who want to get a non-roman domain name will have to apply to the local issuing body for an individual domain. Currently, two of these extensions .egypt and .saudiaarabia are being established in the Arabic alphabet, and Russia also has an application under way for new domain names, too.

While the formal decision was made in June, the past five months have been needed to ensure that the translation system was ready to handle the new domains easily. Some translation systems do currently exist in nations like China, but these only allow for the input of existing domain names in native language. They do not allow any new domains to be created in the native language.