GDI Internationalized Domain Names
Sunday, May 27th, 2012
What is an IDN? An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains characters outside of the English alphabet, for example from languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, and many others. IDNs are creating an opportunity for everyone in the world, regardless of language or location, to be able to access the Internet in their native language. So what is an IDN? It's how we're making a global Internet LOCAL. Why IDN Will Change the Internet The Internet today is undeniably global, but it began in the United States and its foundations were laid in English. All domain names for over 30 years have been made exclusively out of the English alphabet, hyphens, and numbers. Every domain! Convenient for native English speakers, but that's less than 10% of the world's population. The language barrier has been one of the few factors limiting growth of the Internet. SOME ENLIGHTENING STATISTICS As of March 31, 2011, there are more than 2 BILLION people with Internet access: www.internetworldstats.com How many unique visitors would you guess visit Google.com on a monthly basis? In June of 2011, the figure given by compete.com is: 150132156. But wait! To most people you know, isn't "Google" synonymous with the Internet? Yet, simple math will tell you that 150132156/2000000000 is just a hair over 7 percent. The fact of the matter is that what English-speaking users of the Internet consider to BE the Internet, is just the tip of the iceberg! There's a much bigger …
Popularity: 1% [?]
