Worth a read.
Nice work Ron. :)
One notable omission was IDN, short for Internationalized Domain Names. In my opinion, this is a revolution in the making.
In IE7, users will be able to type into their URLs domain names in their native languages on their native keyboards.
It makes complete sense that a user in Japan should be served Japanese ads, reads Japanese ads, works in Japanese characters, and types in a Japanese URL, like
ホテル.com (hoteru, or hotel)
In short order the .com will also be internationalized and aliased correctly by the NS.
Has the establishment missed this? Or do they think Chinese, Russian, Arabic users will continue to favor ASCII domains that are meaningless and unmemorable to them?
The Beauty of the Internet is it brings people together from all over the world whereas IDNs start to target smaller groups.
There are many languages and different dialects, in some areas the variations are so great a non native language like English predominates.
You also need to consider how IE7 and the latest browsers will display the name, will default behaviour be to block IDN names?
You also need to consider how IE7 and the latest browsers will display the name, will default behaviour be to block IDN names?
No, Firefox resolves IDN correctly and without issue. IE7 will have some sort of highlighting feature for phishing attempts in latin characters.
The Beauty of the Internet is it brings people together from all over the world whereas IDNs start to target smaller groups.There are many languages and different dialects, in some areas the variations are so great a non native language like English predominates.
I think your view may be representative of the traditional view of domains.
China is the 2nd largest economy in the world and Japan is the 3rd in terms of GDP.
I can guarantee that English does not 'predominate' in those countries. In fact, in Shanghai, you'd be hard pressed to get around in English.
I do agree that there's a great deal of misinformation and misunderstanding about IDN.
The phishing aspect is overblown. Sure, latin characters can be used to mimic other ASCII characters, but the greatest benefit will be to Asian, Russian, Arabic and other languages, where users with little knowledge of English can use their native languages.
I'm sure the trinity of search enginges realizes that native language branding and mindshare far outweigh the little risk of mistaken meaning. They're looking outside the western world for growth, and Asia, in particular, is where it is.
By in large, the 'traditional' domainer hasn't caught on.
That said, there seem to have been several precient firms and individuals who scooped up thousands of the best terms in Chinese, Japanese, Korean in 2000-2001. In the last year or so, since Firefox began resolving IDN correctly and there were rumblings of IDN resolution in IE7, all the rest of the best keywords have been taken. I guess the domain market is as predictive as any other...
No, Firefox resolves IDN correctly and without issue. IE7 will have some sort of highlighting feature for phishing attempts in latin characters.
Isn't IE7 proposing to show URLs in a different colour which contain characters that are not included in the host machine's default Language settings? Will the other browsers follow?
I think your view may be representative of the traditional view of domains.China is the 2nd largest economy in the world and Japan is the 3rd in terms of GDP.
I can guarantee that English does not 'predominate' in those countries. In fact, in Shanghai, you'd be hard pressed to get around in English.
I didn't mean to suggest English does predominate, I was trying to give an example [in a English based forum] that anyone looking to aquire quantities of IDN names using the same methods used for ASCII names needs to be very careful.
The phishing aspect is overblown. Sure, latin characters can be used to mimic other ASCII characters, but the greatest benefit will be to Asian, Russian, Arabic and other languages, where users with little knowledge of English can use their native languages.
What about variants of CJK characters? What about if those evolve?
I'm sure the trinity of search enginges realizes that native language branding and mindshare far outweigh the little risk of mistaken meaning. They're looking outside the western world for growth, and Asia, in particular, is where it is.
One of them more so :)
Isn't IE7 proposing to show URLs in a different colour which contain characters that are not included in the host machine's default Language settings? Will the other browsers follow?
That's what I understand. A Chinese user will likely have Chinese as their default char set, as a Japanese user will have Japanese as their default char set.
IDN will be used to market within those countries so I don't think highlighted characters will be disruptive -- perhaps I'm missing the point here?
I do know that IDN will certainly not be blocked from the host machine in either browser.
I didn't mean to suggest English does predominate, I was trying to give an example [in a English based forum] that anyone looking to aquire quantities of IDN names using the same methods used for ASCII names needs to be very careful.
You're right. Point taken.
What about variants of CJK characters? What about if those evolve?
They may. Scammers can possibly take advantage of screen resolution as some Chinese characters can be very complex and at a glance look similar.
Scamming/Phishing will always be a problem, but it's not enough of an issue to stop IDN from proliferating.
Were I Japanese company marketing a uniquely Japanese product, I would choose a memorable Japanese domain over an English one.
One of them more so :)
Sheesh -- you got that right!
Somehow I think I've debated you before ;-)
