So who’s applied for IDNs so far? According to ICANN, 10 applications (representing five languages) were submitted over the first four days. ICANN won’t announce exactly who applied and for what until each application is successful — which pushes us …
I’m pleased to announce a new country codes map, this one devoted to the 27 members of the European Union. The ccTLDs are sized according to population and to the side is a list of the top 17 ccTLDs by …
It’s not easy having an American English keyboard when you frequently need to input characters like è or ä or ç. Or ¥. Or €. Maybe it’s because I switch between Mac and Windows so frequently. Or maybe I’m just …
There is a woman who set out to read (and review) a book a day for a year. Not Moby-Dick, mind you. Books of a certain length. And she did it. A book a day for a year. But she …
Read moreA book day, every day, including Forgetting English
Last week I wrote about the coming of IDNs (internationalized domain names). But IDNs aren’t the only new country codes to keep your eyes on. There is also the occasional new Latin-based ccTLD. Like .IC. The Canary Islands is looking …
A global gateway doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, it shouldn’t be fancy. It should be as easy to understand as a stop sign. Form and function and nothing else. You don’t want people getting confused, waiting for animation …
It’s now November the 16th in Asia, which means the “Fast Track” has begun. Here’s the process: The Fast Track process is only for ccTLDs and only for those countries with non-Latin official languages. So if you qualify, get your …
Offtopic, I know, but I have to share. This is a photo of an eagle I snapped yesterday. Normally, I’m a second too late for these types of pics. Such a beautiful bird. And there is a globe in the …
So now that the media hype over internationalized domain names (IDNs) has died down, let’s focus on the messy details of what this all means. First of all, we’re not about to see the non-Latin equivalent of .com anytime soon. …
ICANN has been talking about IDNs for years. For that matter, so have I. So I half-expected a “boy that cried wolf” scenario to play out when ICANN finally did approve IDNs. That is, ICANN would say “IDNs are coming!” …