Adventures in web globalization, since 2002
As a small (but growing) number of companies terminate their dot-brand registrations, it’s fair to ask if dot-brands are a dot-bust. It’s starting to appear that way. Though the fault …
I’m happy to announce that I’ve updated my map of the world’s internationalized domain names for 2018: The map includes all ICANN-approved country code IDNs for the world — more …
Greece has received string approval for an IDN, shown below in red: This brings to 35 the number countries with approved IDNs — and an impressive range of scripts, shown here: I’ve just …
This is not exactly breaking news, but Armenia now has an IDN: հայ Here it is in my fast-evolving IDN map: This means that 34 countries now have delegated IDNs. …
I’m optimistic about the year ahead. I base this optimism in part on discussions I’ve had this year with dozens of marketing and web teams across about ten countries. While …
Imagine if, every time you wanted to visit a website, you were expected to type in letters from a foreign language, or worse, an entirely foreign script, such as Arabic, …
With Mongolia gaining approval for its new internationalized domain name (IDN), there are now 30 countries and territories with non-Latin top-level domains. I’ve updated my map and, as you can …
ICANN has approved Mongolia’s IDN application. Here’s a one-page list of all approved IDNs — a list that now includes 30 countries/territories. IDNs are laying the groundwork for a revolution …
The registration period for generic top-level domains (gTLDs), names like .google and .nyc, has been open for a short while and it appears that ICANN has won the lottery. According …
This week, ICANN begins accepting registrations for the much-hyped and controversial “.brand” generic domain names. What this means is that companies will be able to register domains that function without …
Just as ICANN preps for the rollout of its much-hyped gTLD program, the US Dept. of Commerce comes along and makes a scene. I read the Dept. of Commerce letter and …
ICANN gave approval to Chinese IDNs — for China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. This is a significant development — particularly since China was one of the major forces pushing ICANN …
ICANN announced today that its first full-length IDN has gone live. Here it is: http://وزارة-الأتصالات.مصر Give it a test drive. I just did (on the Mac) and Firefox, Safari, and …
A few weeks back I asked Where is China’s IDN? ICANN not only answered my question about China, but also about a host of additional countries (and territory) that had …