I’ve long talked about the importance of non-Latin domain names, or IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names).
Google has gone live with one if its many IDNs: みんな.
I want to emphasize here that this is a top-level IDN — that is, the equivalent of a .com or .org.
This TLD, according to Google, stands for “everyone.”
So you could in effect register “someword.everyone,” which sounds a bit odd to me but I’m not Japanese.
And, frankly, the Japanese have not been blessed with much in the way of IDN options up to this point.
There is no Japanese-language country code, for instance. And few Japanese-based companies have been aggressive in promoting IDNs.
The new Google IDN website leads with a headline that translates to Let’s Start With.Everyone.
Check out the video to get a good idea of how Google is positioning this domain against .com and .jp:
Despite the fancy website and video, I don’t believe Google is fully invested in the success of this domain.
If it were invested, the domain wouldn’t cost roughly $18 to register (by my rough calculations).
But that doesn’t mean Google can’t become invested in it at a later point.
The good news is that Google is moving ahead on commercializing IDNs.
I expect other tech companies to follow.
