Now you can log on in Hebrew, Arabic and Chinese
Saturday October 31 2009
Internet regulators last night heralded a new era of international web use that will no longer be dominated by the Latin alphabet.
The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) voted unanimously to allow Hebrew, Hindi and scores of other scripts to be used in domain names.
Chinese, Russian and Arabic computer users had been among the billions who were forced to contend with letters and characters not used in their own languages in order to navigate the internet. The decision by the Icann board's 15 voting members came after a summit in Seoul, South Korea.
The proposal was passed unopposed and was welcomed with a standing ovation from delegates.
Rod Beckstrom, the organisation's CEO, said the move would revolutionise access to the internet. He said: "This represents one small step for Icann but one big step for half of mankind who use non-Latin scripts, such as those in Korea, China and the Arabic-speaking world, as well as across Asia, Africa and the rest of the world."
Yesterday's decision came after years of debate and testing on the future of domain names, with the addresses that define websites often ending ".com" or ".co.uk".
The result cleared the way for governments to submit requests for specific addresses that would suit their own citizens.
It is expected that the Chinese Government will be at the head of the queue when the application process for the new system formally opens on November 16.
Since their creation in the 1980s, domain names have been limited to the 26 characters in the Latin alphabet used in English, as well as 10 numerals and the hyphen. (© The Times, London)
- Nico Hines in London
Irish Independent
