Bulgaria to appeal ICANN IDN rejection

Bulgaria’s IT minister has announced plans to appeal the rejection of the .бг IDN, which ICANN refused to allow into the DNS in May because of its similarity to the .br ccTLD.

The minister stated in a TV interview that he believes .бг is the best name for Bulgaria and that other Cyrillic abbreviations would not work. According to the minister, there is still a possibility that ICANN might approve the name.

Personally, I don’t think .бг looks enough like .br to warrant a rejection, although they could look more or less similar depending on what system font you use. Users will just need to become more aware of similar-looking IDNs as the new domain extensions become more common.

ICANN Launches Russia's Cyrillic TLD

Yesterday, the first Russian Internet domains with Cyrillic characters were launched. There has been talks about this move for quite some time. The preparation received both praise and concern. Now, ICANN has officially assigned the .рф (.rf, for “Russian Federation”) top-level domain to Russia.

What this means is that users in Russia will be able to register domains that end in .рф. It also opens the door for entrepreneurs and domainers to capitalize on the new Russian market. Presumably, there will be thousands of new high-priced domain names available in Russian. Other European countries that use cyrillic characters are expected to join in on the fun, and other languages will soon follow.

Latin had long dominated the domain market, while countries with non-Latin characters were largely excluded. Last week, Arabic characters were introduced into the domain pool, with countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates leading the charge. Supporters of the change believe the Internet will be more accessible to Russians and other non-Latin language countries. Opponents believe it will create separation barriers between the nations.

Source: CircleID
Photo: Flickr

Russians concerned about introduction of Cyrillic IDNs

The introduction of Cyrillic IDNs in Russia has been hailed as a success by the government, but many Russian citizens are worried about the possible implications the domains might have on their freedom. According to a recent New York Times article, they are afraid the new names will cut the former superpower off from the rest of Internet and make it easier for security forces to control information.

Aleksei Larin, a construction engineer in the industrial city of Tula, stated:

This is one more step toward isolation. And since this is a Kremlin project, it is possible that it will lead to the introduction of censorship, which is something that certain officials have long sought

The Cyrillic domains will use the suffix .рф. Many web users who have adapted to Latin-character web addresses argue that the names are unnecessary, while the government believes they will bolster Internet adoption to rural areas.

Personally, I think critics of the new system are just a little paranoid. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Russian government would prefer to limit certain information from being viewed online, but how does making the web available to all Russian people hurt anyone? It is true, however, that most Westerners will be unable to type the new Cyrillic addresses. So if all Russian sites adopt the new system, it is possible they could be “cut off” from the rest of the world. But my guess is those Russian sites already using Latin domains will remain as they are.

Russia to apply for.рф IDN

Russian President Dimitry Medvedev has announced that Russia will apply for the .рф Cyrillic IDN as soon as ICANN begins accepting proposals for the new extensions on November 16.

According to Medvedev, registration for the IDN will be available at the end of the month, though trademark holders and government entities will get first grabs “so that we do not end up later having to buy kremlin.рф or something of the sort from people with no connection to the Kremlin.”

Medvedev has suggested using .рф to set up an email system for citizens and government. In a country as large as Russia, this could make communication much easier. Right now such a system is not feasible because most Russians don’t know English and thus would have trouble typing a Latin-based domain.

Photo | Flickr

More domain extensions to be IDN-ready

Yesterday, Bulgeria made news when it announced the availability of its .bg extension in Cyrillic. Now, two more extensions are stepping up to the IDN plate: .eu and Russia’s .rf.

Because .eu is a TLD intended for all of Europe, plans are in place to support alphabets for 23 different languages starting December 10. This will make it the most linguistically diverse domain extension in the world.

Not to be left out of the picture, Russia will begin accepting Cyrillic registrations next summer on the .rf extension, a previously unused domain for the Russian Federation.

Source | Domain Name News

Bulgaria's .bg domain now available in Cyrillic

Well ahead of ICANN’s planned implementation of IDNs, Bulgaria’s official domain registry, Register.bg, has announced the availability of .bg domains in Cyrillic. This makes the Balkan country one of the first to support a non-Latin alphabet.

There are some caveats, however. Most notably, only one Cyrillic character can be used and at least one Latin letter must be included. The registration requirements and fees for the new names are the same as Latin names, though the .bg extension must be used (there is no Cyrillic extension).

The introduction of internationalized domain names is predicted to greatly increase the number of web users. Currently, one has to have knowledge of the Latin alphabet used in Engish to access the web– a major hurdle to people in developing countries. By allowing individuals to use their native language online, one more barrier to Internet access has been removed.

Source | Novinite.com

Photo | Flickr