Domains Extensions in Your Own Language!

It was announced this week that ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) will be instituting Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)s for countries around the world so domains are not just Latin based. It might not seem a big deal to those in the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, or Great Britain, but elsewhere in the world users who want to go online must be able to use Latin-based text and know it well enough to type in domains to websites in order to see content online.

As reported on NPR recently, users around the world currently have to make their computers temporarily use Latin-based text to enter domain names and URLs into their computers, and then they have to switch back to text, e-mail or shop. For those who may only know their native language, this is a HUGE barrier to going online.

In the next few years, web site extensions will be added for all the various languages in the world. ICANN’s own website has a video that talks about the benefits to local businesses, schools, neighbors, and peers to communicate without having to be held back due to language barriers.

A video from the ICANN website, of the new domain name program is below:

Now there’s an idea! Good job ICANN!!