Internationalized Domain Names

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names represented by native language characters. The native language domain name will be followed by .com or .net. According to Global Reach, 60% of the Internet users in 2002 are non-English speakers. Companies that do not address this market segment are missing out on an enormous opportunity.

How Do I Use One – Localize your website to more effectively reach target your audience. Whether you are a global enterprise, or a locally focused company, establishing a presence on the Internet is a must. The first step is, of course, selecting a domain name to serve as the access point to your Web site. Now, with the availability of Internationalized Domain Names, you can select a name that will be most meaningful and effective for your audience or market.

Accurately represent your Web – If you are a locally focused business whose name and identity are in your own language and script, you no longer have to translate or transliterate your name into ASCII characters to better fit the Web. The Web can now be more flexible to better fit your needs.

Protect your brand – You can protect your brands, trademarks and identities in whatever language or script you deem relevant to your business.

What languages are supported – Since availability of languages is dependent upon Unicode, it would be best to answer this question in Unicode terms from the Unicode site. Many scripts (especially Latin) are used for a very large number of languages. The easiest answer is that Unicode covers all the languages that can be written in the following scripts: Latin; Greek; Cyrillic; Armenian; Hebrew; Arabic; Syriac; Thaana; Devanagari; Bengali; Gurmukhi; Oriya; Tamil; Telegu; Kannada; Malayalam; Sinhala; Thai; Lao; Tibetan; Myanmar; Georgian; Hangul; Ethiopic; Cherokee; Canadian-Aboriginal Syllabics; Ogham; Runic; Khmer; Mongolian; Han (Japanese, Chinese, Korean ideographs); Hiragana; Katakana; Bopomofo and Yi.

Technorati Tags: .com, .net, ASCII characters, Domain Names, IDNs, internationalized-domain-names, Website Building

Tags: .com, .net, ASCII characters, Domain Names, IDNs, internationalized-domain-names, Website Building