I read somewhere in NamePros a comment by an Indian domainer that .Com is getting favored there over .IN
Putting it another way, companies that had .IN now tend to adopt .Com when feasible.
I don't have any .CNs but I do have Chinese IDNs in .Com form.
Personally, I think localized .Com will prevail, as happening apparently in India.
Heck, Dot Com is so much more preferred that USPS now promotes its .Com site, rather than .Gov
Probably because you speak English. IDNs are targeted towards those who are unfamiliar with the English language... and after doing a bunch of research, there are plenty.
So they are targeted toward those who are unfamiliar with the English language, yet they are supposed to also input English characters such as 'www' and 'com'? I get what you're saying, but I'd think most people would just spell out their native words using the English alphabet...
As far as type-ins go, they will be very rare (at least for countries like Japan). Most Japanese have never even seen a website URL using kanji before (this verified by my girlfriend).
But yeah, I guess I can see the potential. Hard to say, really. Guess I'll grab a few Japanese terms just in case (if I can find anything decent left).
It's funny that you make this arguement, yet have Japanese in your signature. Do you think it is easier for a native speaker of Japanese to remember to type in "Ecchi" or "エッチサイト"? As a native speaker of English, which would be easier for you to type in? (エッチサイト.ws is sill available, BTW).
I'm not trying to blast you at all, just trying to answer the questions you put forth. I have Japanese domains that get type in traffic every day. More and more people are becoming aware of IDNs, they just don't think of them as "IDNs," they think of them as URLs in their own language.
A lot (basically all) of the A+, primo terms have long been scooped up, but you can find lots of great deals on the still-young aftermarket.
Not necessarily disagreeing, it's just hard for me to imagine kanji as part of a URL. Site title is fine, but in a URL it just feels a bit off. Not that I am against it completely... I guess I'm just torn as to whether it will ever actually take off or not.
Don't mean to be contradicting, but that's where my thought process is at as of now.
Well of course that is utter nonsense. Kanji has featured in URLs of mainstream sites for years. It is only at the first and second levels that there has been a problem with resolution. The Japanese have always used Kanji for sub-directories and sub-domains.
No browser that supports IDN requires any part of http://www.
All keyboards are dual purpose. Many actual input Kanji/Hanzi using Latin characters even for normal text let alone domains, although the use of Hirigana is more common for Japanese. Remembering the same three characters time after time when the most heavily traffic Japanese and Chinese sites have always been dot coms is not going to be so very complicated.
Hmm, have been to many Japanese sites over the years and haven't noticed kanji or hiragana/katakana used in the URLs at all... whether it be with sub-directories, sub-domains, etc. Perhaps I just didn't noticed, though. Hard to say.
Anyway, was just stating my initial reaction to IDN in general. And to be honest, it's starting to win me over a bit, so I'll likely invest in a few.
I guess you must have good language skills so I will offer no more advice.
Date for Auto Updates of IE7 is February 13th. Then things will start to really rock. Increases in traffic on Russian domains can be closely correlated with browser support.
What a Great time to be a domainer !
