The internet just became a bigger place

Sam Engutsamy. November 19, 2009.

Currently, web addresses are found either fully written in Latin characters, or containing only part non-Latin aspects within the addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”), within its report titled ‘Proposed Final Implementation Plan for IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process’, released on September 30, 2009 proposed web addresses be available in non Latin characters. This proposal was accepted at ICANN’s annual meeting which was held in Seoul on October 30, 2009.

It was the case, that web addresses were limited too the alphabet letters, 0 – 9, and the hyphen, however the approval of the proposal means that by mid-2010 web addresses can contain characters from different languages such as Chinese, Hindi, and Korean.

According to Times Magazine, over half of the 1.6 billion internet users around the world use languages which are not based on the Latin alphabet. Therefore, such a change only makes sense and opens up the internet to those who were previously limited due to unfamiliarity with the Latin alphabet. Others that will benefit from the change include local businesses, the young, and elderly.

The ICANN announced on its website, that as of November 16, 2009, they would be accepting requests from country representatives to register new Internet extensions in non Latin alphabet.

The ICANN’s report is available for download in PDF format at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/idn-cctld-implementation-plan-30sep09-en.pdf

Articles of interest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/technology/31net.html