The Web Hosting Blog of Host Color

On October 31, 2009, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved a plan to allow non-Latin web addresses for the first time. So, what does that mean for you and me as regular Internet users? Let’s figure that out.

The approval of non-Latin web addresses, also formally known as International Domain Names (IDN), will significantly change the surface of the Internet and promote further diversity. And this is true: ICANN called the move as the “biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago.”

For me and you who are used to web surfing by typing web addresses using Latin characters (that is, from A to Z and the digits 0 to 9), the change will probably not affect us in any significant way except soon we’ll start seeing links with foreign web addresses on Google search results that lead to websites that we can’t understand. Luckily, there exist tools such as Google Translate to take us off the woods in that situation, right? So, simply put, our web habits likely will remain the same.

The impact of internationalized domain names will be great to people in other nations who never use Roman characters in their daily lives. We may not be so aware with this fact but there are billions of people around the world struggling to engage online because of that reason. Access to Internet has been unfair and limited for them. Fortunately, that is about to change thanks to ICANN. Soon, these people will enjoy and benefit the Web as we do.

The benefit also goes beyond user accessibility. It is expected to promote the growth of online businesses in various local regions of the world as it makes it easier for businesses to adapt the Web. We anticipate that the internationalized domain names will spawn many new local-serving websites that both use their respective native languages (which is already possible) and native characters.

ICANN this month has initially applied the change to country-code top level domains (ccTLDs) controlled by national governments of China, United Kingdom and United States. However, they are planning to launch a Fast Track Process that will allow nations and territories to apply for Internet extensions that mirrors the names and characters from their national languages.

The approval of international domain names by ICANN is indeed a major Internet milestone. For you and me, it may have negligible impact. For billions of people and local businesses around the world, I think it’s a godsend.

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