ICANN Allows Non-Latin Characters for Domains

Decision Seen as Milestone and Internationalization of Internet Age

Nov 2, 2009

After years of talk, Internet domain-name governing body gives the green light for domain name applications in Russian, Chinese, Arabic and other non-Latin characters.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it has approved the use of Internet addresses that consist solely of non-Latin characters and nations and territories can apply for Internet extensions for their name with characters from their national language beginning November 16, stated BroadbandCensus.com, “ICANN Approves Non-Latin Domain Names”, Oct. 31, 2009.

Major Transition in Internet History

“The coming introduction of non-Latin characters represents the biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago,” said ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush in a statement, BroadbandCensus.com, “ICANN Approves Non-Latin Domain Names”, Oct. 31, 2009.

“Right now internet address endings are limited to Latin characters – A to Z. But the Fast Track Process is the first step in bringing the 100,000 characters of the languages of the world online for domain names.”

ICANN will approve candidates’ ability to allow others to register for the new domain name if the applications meet requirements like having government and community support with the first successful applications expected to be adopted by the middle of next year.

End of 40 Years of English-dominated Web Addresses

The web's beginnings as a communications tool for the U.S. military over 40 years ago have been infamously tied to the Internet's reliance on the English language. Now, the introduction of non-Latin domain names brings the Internet into a new generation with other languages to be given the same online status as English, The Independent, “At last, the web goes truly worldwide”, Oct. 30, 2009 stated. Mandarin and Cyrillic alphabets will be the first to be added.

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO, noted that the use of non-Latin domain names will help bring billions of people online who have never used Roman characters, according to BroadbandCensus.com, “ICANN Approves Non-Latin Domain Names”, Oct. 31, 2009.

According to The Independent, Beckstrom heralded the changes as the "internationalization of the Internet. This represents one small step for ICANN, but one big step for half of mankind."

ArabNew’s editorial “Making Net global” on Oct. 30, 2009 explained that “enabling users to key in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Cyrillic or whatever scripts they use to access their chosen websites will show that all languages and cultures are regarded as equal in the Internet age.”

Internet users will be able to enter entire web addresses in their native language for the first time and 100,000 new characters are expected to be added in a number of languages including Mandarin, Russian and Hebrew.

Shift of Economic Power over the Web

This announcement coincides at a time when U.S. economic power is seen weakening. With Chinese web users now outnumbering their American counterparts, this change is seen as another step in the gradual “de-Americanization” of the Internet, explained The Independent.

Numerous brands currently considered globally dominant by the West are still fighting to control the market in countries like China and Russia. Google, for example, has a 71 percent share of the search market in the U.S., but has just 31 per cent of online queries in China where local competitor Baidu has a 63.9 percent share, according to the article.

ICANN hopes that by offering more representation to countries from emerging Asian economies like China, South Korea and India, the role of the West can be scaled back. “The first countries that participate will not only be providing valuable information of the operation of IDNs in the domain name system,” Beckstrom said, “they are also going to help to bring the first of billions more people online – people who never use Roman characters in their daily lives."

BroadbandCensus.com, “ICANN Approves Non-Latin Domain Names”, Oct. 31, 2009

The copyright of the article ICANN Allows Non-Latin Characters for Domains in Internet is owned by Yahan Wu. Permission to republish ICANN Allows Non-Latin Characters for Domains in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.