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ICANN Approves Non-Latin ccTLDs

Posted by kdawson on from the here-comes-everybody dept.

Several readers including alphadogg tipped the news that ICANN has approved non-Latin ccTLDs at its meeting in Seoul. "Starting in mid-November, countries and territories will be able to apply to show domain names in their native language, a major technical tweak to the Internet designed to increase language accessibility. On Friday, the Internet's addressing authority approved a Fast-Track Process for applying for an IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) and will begin accepting applications on Nov. 16. The move comes after years of technical testing and policy development... Currently, domain names can only be displayed using the Latin alphabet letters A-Z, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen, but in future countries will be able to display country-code Top Level Domains (cc TLDs) in their native language. ... 'The usability of IDNs may be limited, as not all application software is capable of working with IDNs,' ICANN said in a 59-page proposal (PDF) dated Sept. 30 that describes the [application] process." Reader dhermann adds, "Great, now even less chance I can identify NSFW links before they are blocked by my work's big brother app and my boss is notified... again."

2 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. how to... by koolfy · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...break the internet, again.

    --
    Segmentation Fault in "Life, Universe and Everything" at line 42. Don't Panic.
    1. Re:how to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Yeah, only the USA should be allowed to dictate what characters are allowed. Since the USA only use 26 letters, why would anyone need more? Also, we should ban web pages not written in English, since it's the only way to insure that terrorists doesn't use a foreign language to bypass the NSA monitoring. We should also ban SSL for the same reason.