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 …
June, 2010
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14 June
Tunisia gets arabic IDN
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 …
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8 June
Bahrain TLD .arab and “عرب.” planned
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 …
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4 June
Pakistan Facebook ban lifted
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 …
May, 2010
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6 May
First IDN domains launched
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 …
January, 2010
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11 January
Bulgaria to apply for two IDNs
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 …
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5 January
How IDNs could hurt web security
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. …
December, 2009
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22 December
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 …
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17 December
Barns.com sells for $175,000
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 …
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15 December
.HK applies for Chinese IDN
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 …