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.

Continue reading: Bulgaria to appeal ICANN IDN rejection

The Tunisia Internet Agency has approved the move to introduce its own IDN in arabic script. The تونس TLD has been given the green light by ICANN and will join other non-Latin scipt TLDs from another 13 countries who already offer domain names in their native languages. Recently we’ve seen other Arabic IDNs join the list, including that of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Tunisia will have to work hard to now put in place the technical infrastructure required, and its Internet Agency has chosen the AFNIC registry to manage the new TLD and ensure that Tunisia can start to enjoy the benefits of the internet more fully.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Tunisia gets arabic IDN

Bahrain’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority is looking for information from the Arab League on the possibility of managing the gTLD .arab and “عرب.”. After the Emirates set up its .emarat domain it looks like Bahrain will follow suit and create its own IDN.

The head of the Bahrain TRA, Ahmed Aldoseri has said that the Arad League is gathering information to finalise its plans for the .arab and عرب. domains, and will also establish the registery which will manage them.

According to Aldoseri, the “.arab” and “عرب.” will encourage internet use among those who don’t use latin scipt and can’t access the vast resources on the internet. The next step is to gather various proposals which will help to make the extensions work in the most efficient way possible. With many institutions involved in the project, it shows that in 2010 it’s time for Arab countries and their populations to enjoy the benefits of internet use.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Bahrain TLD .arab and “عرب.” planned

After protests over images of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad were posted on a Facebook page, the Pakistani government had banned access to the social networking site. The ban has since been lifted on the material, deemed offensive to Muslims, having been removed. The incident sparks questions, though, over just how the Westernised internet intends to manage its interaction with non-Western users and pages.

Yesterday, we reported that the UAE has a new IDN in .emarat, which is a wonderful thing for non-Latin script users of the internet. However, relations between Westernised usage of the internet and that of emerging non-Western usage are still fraught over issues such as content management, security and censorship.

We previously reported on how IDNs could contribute to weaknesses in internet security, and how IDNs could also serve censorship, in the form of Russian concerns over Cyrillic scripted websites and information filtering.

The Facebook vs Pakistan is a less technical, but interesting example, of how internet access and content often promotes the shortcomings of the internet in dealing with cultural differences; and the difficulties for governments in balancing freedom of internet use and their own agendas. For more on the decision to ban Facebook in Pakistan, see Miranda Husain’s Newsweek article.

Source | AP

Continue reading: Pakistan Facebook ban lifted

After decades of an Internet ruled by the Latin alphabet, the first IDNs are now available after passing a stringent evaluation by ICANN. The three new extension are مصر for Egypt, السعودية for Saudi Arabia, and امارات for the UAE.

These new domains will make the web more accessible to millions of Arabic speakers in the Middle East. At the same time, some are worried they will be split the Internet into pieces. Since they require a non-Latin keyboard to type, Western users will be unable to type these new addresses into their web browsers.

Regardless of this, I think IDNs are a good thing. The more people who can access the web, the better.

Continue reading: First IDN domains launched

Bulgaria has announced that it will likely apply for two IDNs with ICANN: .бг and .бгр. The move to apply for two extensions instead of one is the result of an online poll commissioned by the country’s Transport Ministry.

Both IDNs received around a third of the votes, though .бг came out on top. However, Bulgaria is concerned .бг could be rejected by ICANN because of its similarity to Brazil’s .br domain, so it is also applying for .бгp just in case.

Bulgaria is not a newcomer to IDN technology. It was one of the first countries to allow Cyrillic registrations on the .bg domain.

Source | The Sofia Echo

Continue reading: Bulgaria to apply for two IDNs

IDNs have been hailed as a milestone in web accessibility, but unfortunately, this new technology could make it easier for phishers and other cyber criminals to target victims.

This is because while certain letters in two different scripts might look exactly alike, they have different meanings in their respective language. Cyrillic, for example, shares letters with the Latin script. Each language also uses a different encoding, meaning that browsers will respond differently according to the encoding they are set to display.

This is a problem because someone could theoretically register an IDN that looks like a legitimate domain but really isn’t. An individual in Ukraine, for instance, could register the domain “raural.com.” However, the unicode encoding used in North America and much of Europe would display “raural.com” as “paypal.com.” See the problem here? Both users of Latin scripts and anti-phishing software alike would be unable to distinguish the Cyrillic “paypal.com” from the real one.

The creation of IDNs is long past due, but as is the case with the adoption of any new technology, there are always a few bumps along the way.

Photo | kilokilo

Continue reading: How IDNs could hurt web security

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.

Continue reading: Russians concerned about introduction of Cyrillic IDNs

American businessman Jeremiah Johnson already owned woodbarns.com. But that wasn’t enough for him. To expand his already booming business, the man recently bought the domain barns.com for £106,890 ($175,000 USD).

Barns.com sells a variety of sheds and other small storage buildings. No doubt Johnson will have to sell quite a few to make up the cost of his new domain!

In addition, IDN Büromöbel.de (German for “office furniture”) turned heads when it sold for €69,000 ($100,581 USD). As of this writing, the name is the highest-selling IDN to date. It probably won’t take long for the record to be broken, however.

Continue reading: Barns.com sells for $175,000

The .hk domain registry has submitted an application to ICANN to allow the registration of IDNs in Chinese. For years registrants have been able to register all but the domain suffix in Chinese. Once the application is approved, no Latin characters will need to be typed to visit a .hk website.

In order to promote the new technology, the .hk registry plans on giving all current registrants the IDN version of their domain free. All new registrants will also receive the equivalent IDN for free. Rather than attempt to profit from internationalised domains like many registries have, it’s great to see that .hk wants to encourage Internet use and commerce.

Source | Domain News

Continue reading: .HK applies for Chinese IDN

Today is a big day for Europeans with the availability of .eu IDNs. Interestingly, so far most of the names registered are German.

Here is a list of the first ten IDNs registered. All of them are in German and contain umlauts.

1. ärzte.eu (doctors)
2. börse.eu (stock exchange)
3. flüge.eu (flights)
4. bücher.eu (books)
5. ferienhäuser.eu (vacation homes)
6. reisebüro.eu (travel agency)
7. büro.eu (office)
8. küche.eu (kitchen)
9. müller.eu (miller, also a last name)
10. öl.eu (oil)

A lot of the premium names have already been picked up and will be auctioned in the comings weeks.

It will be interesting to see how IDNS stack up against identical names without special characters. Misspellings like ol.eu (öl) and fluge.eu (flüge) have been registered for years. I think speakers of languages that use non-Latin characters have gotten used to altering their spelling for the web, after all.

Continue reading: .eu IDNs launch

Yesterday, The Ukrainian Network Information Center (UNIC) announced that it had submitted the necessary paperwork to ICANN for the creation of the a .ukr Cyrillic IDN. The extension is expected to be available for registration by February or March 2010.

Once the extension goes live, Ukrainians will be able to access the web in their native language. No information on registration costs has been released, but the UNIC better keep it cheap if the average citizen is expected to register the IDN.

It will also be interesting to see whether or not foreign corporations and individuals will be able to register a .ukr. Doing so could result in the most valuable names being swept up by foreign speculators, but at the same time, would allow international firms doing business in the country to reach more Ukrainians.

Source | Kyiv Post
Photo | Casiel

Continue reading: Ukraine submits application for Cyrillic .ukr domain