How International Domain Names Will Help YouWritten by: Haily | Non-Latin languages will soon be used for domain names, potentially opening up new possibilities for domain names.

On October 30th, 2009 (last Friday), the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that it will soon permit domains names using non-Latin-based languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, and Hebrew. This is a huge step forward in globalizing the internet definitely, but it also means that millions (billions?) more domain names are soon to be up for grabs. How will you benefit from this?

Any active IC member that chats in the forums should know by now how hard it is to find the PERFECT domain name for any new website. Rachel's forum topic asking for help was pretty short and simple. It took only one poll and several posts to convince Rachel that she should go with "Autumn Rainbow" as the name of her new website. But Zaphiie's quest for THE ULTIMATE DOMAIN NAME IN HISTORY was just a bit more complicated. It took four different forum topics, 135 replies, a list of probably 500 possible names, and poll after poll after poll until she finally picked "Jirble" for the name of her new site.

Well, finding the right domain name has always been a difficult task and every day it will become more and more difficult as more domains are purchased and less become available. The result is that new domain names must be more creative and unique in order for you to find a domain that is available.

There is now some good news with the ICANN's decision to allow the use of non-Latin languages in domain names. It means that if you can't get the IceCaves domain, for example, you can instead get it in Arabic: "الجليد الكهوف " or even in Chinese: " 冰洞穴 " (or both!). Imagine the possibilities! You can show off to your friends how you got your hands on a "rare" domain name. You can finally get that .net domain you coveted so much. You might even be "cool" thanks to the ICANN's forward-looking decision.

So next time you need a new domain name, don't fret when your idea is already taken. You can at least take comfort by the fact that your domain name isn't taken in an obscure alphabet somewhere out there.

The ICANN hasn't changed anything, however, with the current standard for domain extensions like .com, .net, etc. These will continue to be Latin-based for the mean time, so the .net wars will continue--for now.

   

| Written by: Haily | Added: Nov 1 2009 | Last Modified: Dec 21 2009 | Views: 693 | (Log in to rate) |

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