multilingual domain names

should I register now?

[heini]

I was asked lately to help register a domain name containing a Umlaut. Umlaute in german are those: ä, ü, ö.
They are not ASCII compliant and at present can not be used for domain names - that's at least my understanding.

Reading the http://www.itu.int/mdns/ [itu.int] it appears there is still no general solution in sight.

But there are registrants that offer multilingual domain names - does it make sense to register the name with them?

[Woz]

Heini,

We have been following these developements in the Asia-Pacific forum some time now from the obvious view point of the large Asian population who simply don't speak "Western" languages. For example, Native Language Domain Names News [webmasterworld.com] and in particular Chinese domains [webmasterworld.com].

From what I read on the site you mention there has been little headway made towards a solution. I know this information, both in the AP forum and on the site you cite above, is mainly dealing with Asian Domains and Languages but I think it would have to apply to all Non-Roman or Extended Character Domains equally if any of them are going to get off the ground and work at all. Otherwise we will end up with a system where people need to load x number of addins to their system just to access all the domains they want.

Therefor, even though you could possibly register a Domain with the extended European characters, the real question will you be able to use it. I think the answer to that one at the moment is a "definite possible maybe".

Of course, the other challenge with all of this is that the systems proposed are currently PC-centric. What we really need is a system built into the Browser. Version 8 maybe... Need I say more on that one?

Onya
Woz

[ulstrup]

I agree with Woz:
>the real question will you be able to use it

I don't have the technical knowledge for pointing out the challenges to servers, routers, browsers etc. but I recently changed ISP for one site. The new ISP had a case sensitive system and changed all files to lower case, the links on the pages still had som uppercase characters and I had to change all links. If such a small item can cause troubles, then using non-english characters simply can't work across the net with all kinds of servers, routers, clients etc.

In my opinion non-english character domains is waste of money.

[Woz]

>In my opinion non-english character domains is waste of money.

Well, I wouldn't quite go that far. I think in the future they will break the stranglehold the (mostly) Germanic Languages have on the Internet.

My point is that at the moment you would be buying something and might work if they adopt a particular system and if it becomes widespread. What happens if they change systems? Do we lose all those domains and start again or do they migrate over to the new system? There are just too many variables at the moment to start quanitfying the value and usability of these proposed Native Languages domains in the real world.

Onya
Woz

[Rumbas]

I agree with Woz here. If the characters get adopted and start to work sometime, it could be very interesting to a few of these domains.

Some of them are live though:
[ökobank.nu...]
No aff, just an example

I don't think they're any good right now though.

[Ove]

I got tons of mail before about this and they had a site with example of sites that have these adresses and 99% of them could not be opened so i think its not a good idea to get them right now wait to get them.

/Ove

[heini]

>Ökobank

Exactly, this is one of those options today. It's Nunames, where you have to register a straight ASCII name along with a multilingual name.
And yes, it works.

There are lots of multilingual names already taken. But is there any guarantee those registrants can give you?

[Rumbas]

>guarantee

I grapped a few last year, and all I got to go by is the receipt from the registar.

A side note: For europeans it is not a problem typing in the special characters. We have ö ø å Ä etc. on our keyboards. But for americans and others this is a major problem.

I got Sørensen.com - mainly because I thought having an email almost similar to my name [rasmus@sørensen.com]would be cool. Thinking about it though, maybe it not so cool since you have to be able to type the Ø in order to send me an e ;)

For local purpose these domains could come in handy though.

[bill]

I've been following this for a while because I think it's a really great idea. However, I became very disillusioned with the registries that were selling multilingual domain names, knowing full well that they don't work, yet only explaining this fact in the vaguest of terms, and then only in the fine print.

In Japan they are trying to work around the plug-in issue by incorporating the name resolution into the browsers. Newer versions of Microsoft IE supposedly have this domain name resolution plug-in built-in...probably only for Japanese names, but it's a start.

[place1]

hi, good debate,

i also got a few of these nunames last year and although they say that 90 million ?? people are able to access these domains, on my understanding without the browser plugin, they are not viewable.

for the engines, the FULL url must be submitted for it to be indexed otherwise it is does not exist. eg 123.shop.ne*.ne* and not just 123.shop

again my understanding is that they are 4th level domains, and therefore useless unless you plan on doing onland marketing of this domain in addition to your online marketing of the normal .com etc.

i would not suggest them as a primary domain, perhaps as secondary "play" names then ok.

hope it helps

[Woz]

For those interested, further developements from the Chinese Authorities in the Asia-Pacific Forum here [webmasterworld.com] which could affect the whole Internationalized Domain Names situation.

Onya
Woz