Web set for non English web addresses

**melvbot** · 27-10-2009, 02:41 AM

The Press Association: Web set for non-Latin addresses

The internet is set to undergo one of the biggest changes in its four-decade history with the expected approval this week of international domain names - or addresses - that can be written in non-Latin script, an official has said.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN - the non-profit group that oversees domain names - is holding a meeting this week in Seoul.
Domain names are the monikers behind every website, e-mail address and Twitter post, such as ".com" and other suffixes.

One of the key issues to be taken up by ICANN's board is whether to allow entire internet addresses to be in scripts that are not based on Latin letters.

That could potentially open up the web to more people around the world as addresses could be in characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic - in which Russian is written.

"This is the biggest change technically to the internet since it was invented 40 years ago," Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the ICANN board, said, calling it a "fantastically complicated technical feature". He said he expects the board to grant approval on Friday, the conference's final day.

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's new president and CEO, said that if the change is approved, ICANN would begin accepting applications for non-Latin domain names and that the first entries into the system would likely come sometime in mid 2010.

Enabling the change, Dengate Thrush said, is the creation of a translation system that allows multiple scripts to be converted to the right address.

"We're confident that it works because we've been testing it now for a couple of years," he said. "And so we're really ready to start rolling it out."
ICANN is headquartered in the US in Marina del Rey, California.

**jandajoy** · 27-10-2009, 02:45 AM

Shit, that sounds huge. Surely there'd be some kinda translation programs?

**jandajoy** · 27-10-2009, 02:47 AM

Couldn't every internet address be automatically available in accepted translations?

WTF do I know

**dirtydog** · 27-10-2009, 02:49 AM

Wont be long before browsers translate any site into English.

**Butterfly** · 27-10-2009, 08:09 AM

what a disaster, now downloading from those Japanese and Russian websites will be impossible

very stupid idea,

**Marmite the Dog** · 27-10-2009, 09:34 AM

I can see this being a cock-up of huge proportions.

**Butterfly** · 27-10-2009, 09:49 AM

absolutely, a complete fuck up !!!

DaffyDuck · 27-10-2009, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by Butterfly

very stupid idea,

Done for ONE reason only - profit.

Of course the board will grant approval - just because the organization claims to be a non-profit, it doesn't mean members won't be swayed by donations. Particularly Network Solutions stands to gain tremendously (and they are for BIG profit) by having another huge pool open up of saleable domain names -- they don't care if this will benefit anyone or not, they just care about the money they will stand to make.

This already happened once, as you can already register localized domain names in non-roman letters (I have several) and they all resolve properly.

All this will do is that regional websites will be able to hide better, and it will finally make the web more insular and more restricted. By removing a single language in use, it will do more harm than good.

**kingwilly** · 27-10-2009, 12:44 PM

But the thai's cannot even agree on the transliteration of their own language into English., cannot see it workign yet./

**Butterfly** · 27-10-2009, 12:58 PM

^^ exactly, it will create black holes in the web

great for hackers and spammers to hide,

**slackula** · 27-10-2009, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^^ exactly, it will create black holes in the web

Jeebus, if this idea can get you and Daffy to agree it must be a sign of the apocalypse!

**BillyBobThai** · 27-10-2009, 10:28 PM

This new change, will only give some bright chap, the chance to write some code that can change English into Hindu, Chinese or any other language. The search engine of the future will incorporate this with ease. We, who speak only English, can only benifit from this new change. When other non English speaking people, are allowed to use their native language, things will only get better, not worse.

**forreachingme** · 22-09-2010, 05:51 PM

I tried to buy bank.com in arabic

but no success so far, not open yet?

**harrybarracuda** · 22-09-2010, 08:28 PM

If you go to many foreign language websites and look at the filenames in the underlying structure, most of the time they're in English anyway.

Try this one:

Abu Dhabi Sports

and move your mouse pointer over the picture of Ronaldo.

It's called "http://www.admcsport.com/ar/football/news/article-5121"

You can use this technique to navigate such websites if you use a bit of common sense.

All it will do is give Johnny Foreigner places to go where their own kind congregate.

Don't really see much of a problem, apart from it opens up the web to those that can't read or write English, and I doubt I've got much I want to share with them anyway.

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