Not only is the Internet just turning 40 years old, it's truly going global with new extensions that will someday make it possible for entire web-site addresses to be written in every language in the world. On Friday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers agreed to introduce a number of internationalized domain names. IDNs allow scripts such as Chinese, Korean or Arabic to be used in the last portion of an address name -- the part after the dot, such as dot-com and dot-org.
This is a significant milestone in the globalization of the Internet and comes after years of work. ICANN is predicting IDNs could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of global Internet users.
"This is only the first step, but it is an incredibly big one and an historic move toward the internationalization of the Internet," said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's president and CEO. "We just made the Internet much more accessible to millions of people in regions such as Asia, the Middle East, and Russia."
IDN on the Fast Track
ICANN has put the IDN program on the fast track for certain languages. The program will be rolled out in stages, beginning Nov. 16. Initially, IDNs will only be allowed on a limited basis involving country codes, such as dot-kr for Korea or dot-ru for Russia. Those countries can now use IDNs to replace the dot-kr or the dot-ru. ICANN said the use of IDNs will eventually be expanded to all types of Internet address names.
"The meaning behind this measure is that the Internet belongs to everyone, no matter what language they speak," Beckstrom said. "It's all about inclusion of all people in all regions of the globe. The Internet is about bringing the world together, and this will facilitate that effort."
Although IDNs are a good idea from the perspective of human-readable sites that drive branding and localized awareness, Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis, is not convinced that mixing other languages into URLs will be well-received by software developers.
"When you look at how the infrastructure  of the Internet works, it's not a good idea to mix Arabic and non-Arabic numerals. That's why we don't do that," Shimmin said. "That's why the addresses are all in Arabic numerals. This is going to require a lot of work from software developers to build in routines to cover all the available languages."
ICANN's Future Plans
Meanwhile, ICANN is moving forward with other global initiatives. At its meeting this week in Seoul, South Korea, the group also discussed the constantly evolving cybersecurity threats to the domain name system. Security experts discussed how best to collaborate and share information securely.
ICANN also held initial discussions about how it will keep itself accountable to the global Internet community following the signing of a new agreement between ICANN and the U.S. government. But for now, ICANN is celebrating what it sees as a victory for the global Internet.
"This is a culmination of years of work, tests, study and discussion by the ICANN community," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the board at ICANN. "To see this finally start to unfold is to see the beginning of an historic change in the Internet and who uses it."
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