Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) enable users to enter the URL of the website in a browser in his native language. Earlier this was limited only to Latin characters; however, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) now permits Internationalized Domain Names.

Internationalized domain names (IDNs) have been available to Internet users for many years, but this year the first fully non-Latin IDN domains have become enabled by ICANN and country-code top-level domain registries. The recent success of the launch of Russia's .рф (.rf) ccTLD shows that there is an enormous demand for domain names in Internet users' native languages.

The first demonstration of email transmission using a fully Internationalized address held at the APTLD Members Meeting in Amman, Jordan

العرض الأول لتبادل الرسائل الالكترونية باستخدام نطاقات علوية عالمية يعقد في اجتماع أعضاء مشغلي النطاقات العليا لدول آسيا والمحيط الهادئ (APTLD) في عمان، الأردن

Here you can find information and media on IDNs.

 

What are Internationalized Domain Names or IDNs? 

Due to the technical limitations of the Internet, domain names can only be registered in ASCII, otherwise known as plain text. International characters such as ö, ç, or Ф, cannot be interpreted by the DNS and therefore cannot reside in a domain name registry as a registered name. Read more... 

83% of the world’s population is estimated to be non-English speaking, yet for years they have been unable to communicate in their own languages via Web and e-mail addresses.

Afilias is a Gold Sponsor of the APRICOT 2010 Meeting.  The ten-day long summit consists of seminars, workshops, tutorials, conference sessions, birds-of-a-feather (BOFs), and other forums all with the goal of spreading and sharing the knowledge required to operate the Internet within the Asia Pacific region.

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 6 October 2009 – Today Afilias President & CEO Hal Lubsen released the following statement concerning ICANN’s new Affirmation of Commitments with the US Department of Commerce: