Internationalized URLs and Search Engines

Do internatinoalized urls affect search engines?

[snair]

This question is more about what comes after the TLD rather than the URL itself.

I'm starting to see some sites that are starting to use Chinese characters in the URLs.

For example,

exampe.cn/[Chinese Text]

In some cases, instead of displaying the Chinese text, it shows actual [%A%B...]

Now I'm curious about 2 things,

1. Do you think this trend will continue? As in, more and more sites will start using Chinese characters?

2. Has anyone tested whether these URLs (sometimes they're extremely long) affect search engines in anyway?

[bill]

Check out DMOZ. They've been doing this since they introduced a Japanese section. This isn't really new. Look at the Japanese categories:
[dmoz.org...]

As a trend it hasn't really taken off in any of the areas I monitor.

[snair]

Thanks bill.

Yeah, I've only seen it used on a few sites so far, but just thought it was kinda neat.

[bill]

Here's an older thread we had on this topic: Naming files in Asian languages...Does it help with SEO? [webmasterworld.com]