First Non-Latin Domain Names Go Online
Washington, DC (Vocus) May 7, 2010 For the first time in the Internet?s history, non-Latin characters can now be used for an entire Internet address name. The first ?internationalized? domain names (IDNs) were entered into the Internet?s root zone yesterday, marking an historic first in ICANN?s globalization of the Internet.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first three countries to use Arabic characters in the last portion of their Internet domain names ? that portion to the right of the dot (or to the left for languages like Arabic which written and read from right-to-left), such as dot-eg (Egypt), dot-sa (Saudi Arabia) or dot-ae (United Arab Emirates). They are called country code top-level domains or ccTLDs.
?This isn?t just a minor change for the Internet, it?s a seismic shift that will forever change the online landscape,? said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN. ?This is the beginning of a transition that will mak...