And for the IDN doubting Thomases.

[Rubber Duck]

"Opportunities for Growth" from Versign

Read Section on "Opportunities for Growth" from the Versign's August 2006 Domain Industry Brief:

http://www.verisign.com/static/039111.pdf

 

[ekal]

RJ raises a good point - I find it hard to believe that IDNs will gain traction without IDN TLDs. The current situation is a poor mish-mash that doesn't solve the problem of having to type and remember names in ASCII.

 

[ThaiIDNs]

RJ raises a good point - I find it hard to believe that IDNs will gain traction without IDN TLDs. The current situation is a poor mish-mash that doesn't solve the problem of having to type and remember names in ASCII.

That depends very much on the country in question. In my country, .co.th requires a company registration and hence .com is dominant instead. So IDN TLDs are not important here, .com is.

The argument that IDNs will take off as China's economy grows doesn't hold much water. Japan has a strong economy, a non-English speaking population, high levels of usage of their ccTLD, high per capita income, and all sorts of other things that should make it a prime candidate for IDNs. So where are all these IDNs they should be using? Clearly there are other factors holding up the widespread adoption of IDNs.

The main problem with IDNs is that very few applications support them. Oh yes, I know IE7 will change the world! Yeah, right. I'm sorry, but until every major browser, email client, and other Internet application supports IDNs they aren't going to take off. Without a lot of IDNs in use the incentive to add this support to an application is low. Chicken & Egg.

It's likely we'll get there eventually. We'll reach some point of critical mass where they just take off. Hopefully within my lifetime. Hopefully before the DNS system becomes obsolete.

If Chinas economy can continue growing at the current rate for 50 years it will indeed surpass that of the US. Of course by then, all life on earth will have been extinguished by their toxic cloud and the weather forecast for the forbidden city on Christmas day will be a balmy 100 degrees centigrade with a chance of sulphuric acid showers. IDNs won't be worth much of anything then, so lets not count on China's economy to drive IDN values

In Asia, use of IE is typically 95% plus, so it is hardly surprising that "normal folks" aren't registering and using IDNs. Why indeed would you attempt to use something that is only accessibly by 5% (max) of your users. But yes, once IE7 is launched, that will be *all* major browsers supporting IDNs. So the game starts. I do agree the process will not be "instant", the world isn't going to change suddenly when IE7 is released in Asia, but the process will begin.

As for email, its a "nice to have" but not a "must have" for site developers. Major websites in Asia don't tend to use the email address of the website. There is far too much spam for that.

IDNs will happen in Asian countries, and sooner rather than later. Thais want to use Thai domain names. Everything else they do on the web is in Thai, why should domains be any different. Once the browser app. is finally ready, Thais will switch to IDNs very quickly. They are very sick of being forced to label their websites in a foreign language.

 

[bocanames]

RJ raises a good point - I find it hard to believe that IDNs will gain traction without IDN TLDs. The current situation is a poor mish-mash that doesn't solve the problem of having to type and remember names in ASCII.

I think IDNs will gain traction whether or not ICANN ever implements IDN TLDs. Some languages (like Vietnamese I believe) you can even type the domains in the native character set and continue to type ASCII .com without even switching settings (no extra keystrokes) since only part of the keyboard is mapped. Clever people will come up with innovations anyway if needed.

Good thing too, since waiting for the IDN TLDs may take some time. There are policy decisions and technical difficulties there around things like whether or not to ensure if I own xyz.com (I wish) that I own the equivalent in ANY variation of .com

 

[DNWizardX9]

Just a heads-up from DomainFest LA. A speaker from ICANN hosted a session about IDN's. One of the things they want to do is open the door to internationalized TLDs. This may mean future landrushes for yet to be created IDN namespaces.

We had one of our members at this conference. They were referring to DNAME. Mapping .com to the native equivalent. We are all safe. The big registrars like this as its more money in their pocket as they already are able to run .com registries. (network solutions etc)

The argument that IDNs will take off as China's economy grows doesn't hold much water. Japan has a strong economy, a non-English speaking population, high levels of usage of their ccTLD, high per capita income, and all sorts of other things that should make it a prime candidate for IDNs. So where are all these IDNs they should be using? Clearly there are other factors holding up the widespread adoption of IDNs.

The main problem with IDNs is that very few applications support them. Oh yes, I know IE7 will change the world! Yeah, right. I'm sorry, but until every major browser, email client, and other Internet application supports IDNs they aren't going to take off. Without a lot of IDNs in use the incentive to add this support to an application is low. Chicken & Egg.

It's likely we'll get there eventually. We'll reach some point of critical mass where they just take off. Hopefully within my lifetime. Hopefully before the DNS system becomes obsolete.

If Chinas economy can continue growing at the current rate for 50 years it will indeed surpass that of the US. Of course by then, all life on earth will have been extinguished by their toxic cloud and the weather forecast for the forbidden city on Christmas day will be a balmy 100 degrees centigrade with a chance of sulphuric acid showers. IDNs won't be worth much of anything then, so lets not count on China's economy to drive IDN values

Very uneducated on the subject. I will give you a D-........

Have you even read the posts here? IE 6 and below do not support IDN. Check overture on alot of the major japanese words with .com afterwards. The word w/ ext is there. There will be typing. There will be advertising $. I geuss my namedrive stats are from ghosts clicking my links.

Also for those that didn't know. ITSYOURDOMAIN, a registry(TDC) currently owns 30,000 IDNS themselves. Register.com also owns many IDNS. I think we are in a safe position.

 

[thefabfive]

There are policy decisions and technical difficulties there around things like whether or not to ensure if I own xyz.com (I wish) that I own the equivalent in ANY variation of .com

This is never going to happen. Would the owner of car.com expect to be given coche.com? Would the owner of game.com be given juego.com or jeu.com? Never going to happen.

 

[Bramiozo]

Considering what NP41215 had written before I think it should be clear that you should seperate input method and representation method. The input method will not be affected by idn's but now the chinese user will be able to use the phonetic converter directly in the browser ánd see the chinese characters he was thinking about. Provided their is integrated browser support for phonetic conversion this removes any need for pinyin domains since the input method will be equal to the input method for idn's.

NP41215 is correct when he speaks of high typing speeds in Pinyin. The method itself is called Wubi which stands for “five stroke input method”. Wubi maps major components of Chinese characters into Roman letters. The Chinese character components are inputted in the order in which they would be written by hand.

Wubi is used primarily by speed typists and those who use a keyboard a great deal, because it is fast. However, it requires special training and ongoing practice and its learning curve is quite steep. Most Chinese do not believe that it is worth the investment in time that learning the Wubi method requires.

Rubber Duck: I really have no problem with our having a difference of viewpoint. I would appreciate it if you could be a bit more respectful toward a fellow member when you disagree. I beleive that you are very well versed, but I doubt that you have an absolute monopoly on the truth.

That having been said, the following is my understanding and you are most welcome to correct it:

Using standardized software in conjunction with the English language QWERTY keyboard, a Chinese can type in the word yuming (Pinyin) and 域名 gets put into the document.

To accomplish this, they need to switch typing methods at least twice. For instance, to type 域名.com into the address blank, they need to:

Switch to Chinese typing mode by using "Ctrl+Shift" at least once, sometimes more.

Type Pinyin yuming , select 域名 from a list of choices that appears for yuming, then

Switch back to English typing mode by using "Ctrl+Shift" or "Ctrl+Blank" , type .com, and then they’re done. Is that correct?

Too, the China Internet Network Information Center reports that as of 6/06, there were 788,400 Chinese websites. Can you point me to where you learned there were hundreds of millions of pages?

Also, I'd like to see where it is well documented that Hanzi is preferred over Pinyin. It isn't that way by the Chinese I know.

Thanks for helping me learn.

S

 

[thefabfive]

Just a heads-up from DomainFest LA. A speaker from ICANN hosted a session about IDN's. One of the things they want to do is open the door to internationalized TLDs. This may mean future landrushes for yet to be created IDN namespaces.

I gave a full report of this presentation elsewhere.

This not news. IDN TLDs is all that ICANN wants to do. That is their mandate. Whether it be through DNAME or new NS records. Most likely they'll institute both.

However, I don't believe Verisign would allow tons of .com clones to pop up when they can have the whole pie with DNAME.

 

[Bramiozo]

I think he meant blabla.com transliterated to english would maybe hold rights over the unicode version. This is a very relevant concern, if jurisprudence piles up in favor of these translatired names we are basically stuck with worthless names. There was a udrp in germany against the owner of an umlaut-domain, started by the owner of the ascii-version, the udrp was decided in favor of the defendant.

This is never going to happen. Would the owner of car.com expect to be given coche.com? Would the owner of game.com be given juego.com or jeu.com? Never going to happen.

 

[bocanames]

This is never going to happen. Would the owner of car.com expect to be given coche.com? Would the owner of game.com be given juego.com or jeu.com? Never going to happen.

No I meant that coche.com owner would not have to worry about coche.[IDN version of com]

 

[thefabfive]

No I meant that coche.com owner would not have to worry about coche.[IDN version of com]

This will on depend on what system the GNSO decides to go with, DNAME or NS records. A decision probably will not be made until next year from what I heard.

 

[Bramiozo]

I gave a full report of this presentation elsewhere.

This not news. IDN TLDs is all that ICANN wants to do. That is their mandate. Whether it be through DNAME or new NS records. Most likely they'll institute both.

However, I don't believe Verisign would allow tons of .com clones to pop up when they can have the whole pie with DNAME.

There is logic and there is politics, ifDNAME is accepted i-idns and equivalent initiatives are directly made redundant while we retain the rights over our idn.idn's.

We still have some things to hope for
- (in progress) jurisprudence in favor of IDN
- (in progress) browser (input) support
- (in progress) full idn support for email
- (uncertain) DNAME

Success still isn't guaranteed.

You have a link Bramiozo?

CK - Washington.   The Chain Hoist ruling confirming the protection of generic domain names in German law is now available.

On March 7, 2006, the Dresden appellate court had decided in the matter 14 U 2293/05 that a chain hoist maker may not demand that another party release the kettenzüge.de domain. It found no infringement under trademark law because the generic and descriptive term for chain hoists, Kettenzüge, does not qualify for a trademark.

In addition, the generic use of the domain name does not constitute a violation of competition law. The unavailability of the domain name to a chain host manufacturer operates merely as an indirect disadvantage on the plaintiff's business. Despite the circumstance that the domain owner offered to sell or lease the domain, the court found no cyber-squatting, domainrecht reports.

http://www.jurablogs.com/meldungen/2005/12/11/28093/
http://jurpc.de/rechtspr/20060089.htm

 

[rhys]

The argument that IDNs will take off as China's economy grows doesn't hold much water. Japan has a strong economy, a non-English speaking population, high levels of usage of their ccTLD, high per capita income, and all sorts of other things that should make it a prime candidate for IDNs. So where are all these IDNs they should be using? Clearly there are other factors holding up the widespread adoption of IDNs.

The main problem with IDNs is that very few applications support them. Oh yes, I know IE7 will change the world! Yeah, right. I'm sorry, but until every major browser, email client, and other Internet application supports IDNs they aren't going to take off. Without a lot of IDNs in use the incentive to add this support to an application is low. Chicken & Egg.

It's likely we'll get there eventually. We'll reach some point of critical mass where they just take off. Hopefully within my lifetime. Hopefully before the DNS system becomes obsolete.

If Chinas economy can continue growing at the current rate for 50 years it will indeed surpass that of the US. Of course by then, all life on earth will have been extinguished by their toxic cloud and the weather forecast for the forbidden city on Christmas day will be a balmy 100 degrees centigrade with a chance of sulphuric acid showers. IDNs won't be worth much of anything then, so lets not count on China's economy to drive IDN values

It's so cute to watch you people try to construct logical arguments with bad information. I'm sitting in Tokyo right now and the friends here I have been speaking to seem to understand exactly how cool it would be to have Japanese language domains so that finally they can remember the URL. They were very surprised to learn that the next IE will support IDNs. Let's couple that with the fact that IE has 95% share globally and that IE7 will be a special security update to all XP users and I think that only an idiot would conclude that IDNs won't grow tremendously in usage. I agree that IDN email would be nice to have, but trust me Japanese business has been hungry for domain names that people can actually remember and spell correctly.

It reminds me of all those people who said that this e-commerce stuff would never work out because people don't want to shop online and non of the infrastructure is there anyway. It's so cute. :hehe:

 

[DNWizardX9]

Kawaii!!!

 

[primacomputer]

Very uneducated on the subject. I will give you a D-........

Have you even read the posts here? IE 6 and below do not support IDN.

Have you? Where did I say it did?

Check overture on alot of the major japanese words with .com afterwards. The word w/ ext is there.

Only .com, not .co.jp? So the Japanese love IDNs but not their ccTLD? Very odd.
Or perhaps there is some other more logical explanation as to how “.com” is being appended to users search queries?
BTW, 日本.com has OVT zero results. So does 日本.co.jp.

As for email, its a "nice to have" but not a "must have" for site developers. Major websites in Asia don't tend to use the email address of the website. There is far too much spam for that.

I can see email being a “nice to have” for certain sites. I have a number of sites where I don't use email on that domain. Only time will tell whether there are enough of these type of sites to reach the critical mass required for wide spread adoption.

It's so cute to watch you people try to construct logical arguments with bad information. I'm sitting in Tokyo right now and the friends here I have been speaking to seem to understand exactly how cool it would be to have Japanese language domains so that finally they can remember the URL. They were very surprised to learn that the next IE will support IDNs. Let's couple that with the fact that IE has 95% share globally and that IE7 will be a special security update to all XP users and I think that only an idiot would conclude that IDNs won't grow tremendously in usage. I agree that IDN email would be nice to have, but trust me Japanese business has been hungry for domain names that people can actually remember and spell correctly.

So if they've been hungry for so long why haven't they eaten them all up long ago? Why are they not even aware that IE7 will support them? Why aren't they aware that a plugin for IE has been available for years?

You're making predictions for an entire nation, the world even, based on “good information” such as where you are “sitting” and what a few of your (uninformed) friends think. At the same time poo pooing “bad information” such as the fact that IDNs have been around for years. Now that's cute!

Just because something is a “good thing” doesn't mean it will take off. Take VOIP for example. I was using it 20 years ago. It was great. It was tried in the mainstream every so often but never really took off. 20 years later Skype comes on the scene and suddenly it's all the rage.

Is that because everyone in the world didn't want free phone calls for the last 20 years? Is it because Skype.com is such a great domain name? Is it because Skype does anything more than countless other previous products have? Of course not. It's because dozens of things all fell into place at the same time. There was no one single cause. It will be the same with IDNs. IDN support in IE is just one of many factors required before IDNs begin to take off.

 

[domainstosell]

You're making predictions for an entire nation, the world even, based on “good information” such as where you are “sitting” and what a few of your (uninformed) friends think. At the same time poo pooing “bad information” such as the fact that IDNs have been around for years. Now that's cute!

Aren't you doing the same thing? Just because you were using VOIP 20 years ago, and now it is all the rage, does that mean that people don't want it? Or that it makes their want for it less valid? You said yourself that "dozens of things fell into place at the right time." Well, how is that any different than what is happening now?

I don't care if you start reg'ing IDNs or not, that's your choice. I'm not going to sit and argue the point of whether having a native-language keyword is better than having ZGJ.in or QDK.us. But you have to admit that there is a common-sense element. I mean, just answer a few key questions:

1. Are there languages other than English in the world?
2. Do the people who speak these other languages use computers and the internet?
3. Do they advertise (i.e. - Do they maintain businesses that spend money)?
4. Are they consumers (i.e. - Do they seek out goods and services online to spend money on)?
5. Would they rather use their own language to navigate the web (the proliferation of native-language sites and ads would suggest yes)?

There could be many more questions added to this list, but it all boils down to taking a less Americentric view of the world, and realizing that the potential for profit is huge.

-- BTW, 日本.com gets 71 OVT w/ext and 164,031 without. It also gets 3,729 US OVT (without ext).

 

[DNWizardX9]

dude you need to check japanese ovt. The .com does get ovt with extension. 日本.com 79

Also choose your battles wisely.. Comparing IDNs vs VOIP...... LOL

Also I have seen some .jp's that have ovt w/ ext

.jp is for general reg by anyone
.co.jp is for companies

 

[Bramiozo]

I think he's right in saying "It will be the same with IDNs. IDN support in IE is just one of many factors required before IDNs begin to take off.", that's the plain and simple truth of the matter.

I think however that these factors are a mere natural development following 8 years (!) of continuous development towards a technology that is so obviously needed to open the web for everyone, regardless of their language.
The general trend is towards globalisation and the internet has been and will be the catalyst for that process, idn fit's perfectly in that trend.

 

[ThaiIDNs]

Have you? Where did I say it did?


Only .com, not .co.jp? So the Japanese love IDNs but not their ccTLD? Very odd.
Or perhaps there is some other more logical explanation as to how “.com” is being appended to users search queries?
BTW, 日本.com has OVT zero results. So does 日本.co.jp.


I can see email being a “nice to have” for certain sites. I have a number of sites where I don't use email on that domain. Only time will tell whether there are enough of these type of sites to reach the critical mass required for wide spread adoption.

So if they've been hungry for so long why haven't they eaten them all up long ago? Why are they not even aware that IE7 will support them? Why aren't they aware that a plugin for IE has been available for years?

You're making predictions for an entire nation, the world even, based on “good information” such as where you are “sitting” and what a few of your (uninformed) friends think. At the same time poo pooing “bad information” such as the fact that IDNs have been around for years. Now that's cute!

Just because something is a “good thing” doesn't mean it will take off. Take VOIP for example. I was using it 20 years ago. It was great. It was tried in the mainstream every so often but never really took off. 20 years later Skype comes on the scene and suddenly it's all the rage.

Is that because everyone in the world didn't want free phone calls for the last 20 years? Is it because Skype.com is such a great domain name? Is it because Skype does anything more than countless other previous products have? Of course not. It's because dozens of things all fell into place at the same time. There was no one single cause. It will be the same with IDNs. IDN support in IE is just one of many factors required before IDNs begin to take off.

1) Email of course will be supported in time. But it isn't even a consideration for Thai site owners in choosing a domain name for a website. For sites that require online support, they use a support form or chat interface.

2) It isn't a question of "need", nobody needs IDNs, just like 20 years ago nobody needed the Internet. Nobody is dying in the streets due to lack of IDNs. But it is a question of what makes the Internet a much better and more efficient place to do business and communicate for the 80%+ of the world that doesn't use English as a first language. It isn't any coincidence that ICANN's "Strategic Plan for 2007-2010" talks almost exclusively about "Internationalization".

http://www.icann.org/announcements/issues-paper-08sep06.htm

IDNs are a big part of that.

3) As for why all the great IDNs haven't been eaten up by locals, well you could say the same thing about "great ASCII domains" in 1997. There were many many still unregistered that are now worth five or six figures. Why weren't they all "eaten up" by Americans? And that was when those domains resolved on 100% of computers worldwide. IDNs in most Asian countries still only resolve on less than 5% of computers. As it happens, many of the best Japanese, Korean, and Thai domains are owned by locals. And they know the value of what they hold, they aren't selling any for less than big money.

General lack of interest from locals could also be related to the total dominance of the English language in the decision making bodies on the Net i.e. ICANN, IETF, DNSO, VeriSign. If they debated and published entirely in Farsi, do you think you would get excited in what they were saying, or even know about it? No, probably not. You would be one of the 99.9% of locals that found out about IDNs after IE7.

Also, if Korean or Chinese or Japanese domainers were buying, selling, and discussing IDNs, do you think you would hear about it. Do you think they would turn up at NamePros IDN section? No, of course not. They have their own forums in their own languages which you are blissfully unaware of. That's the thing about languages you see. People like to talk in their own language, not one of your choosing.

I do agree that IE7 isn't the only thing that is needed to get IDNs becoming accepted in the marketplace. But it seems remarkably logical that going from a state where only 5% of browsers resolve IDNs to potentially 100% is going to the event that will really get the IDN ball rolling. How fast it rolls and how big it gets, we will all find out in the next 12 months.

 

[primacomputer]

Aren't you doing the same thing? Just because you were using VOIP 20 years ago, and now it is all the rage, does that mean that people don't want it? Or that it makes their want for it less valid? You said yourself that "dozens of things fell into place at the right time." Well, how is that any different than what is happening now?

Yes. I'm doing exactly the same thing. I'm saying all the factors needs for widespread use of IDNs isn't here yet, just like they weren't for VOIP. I've only heard one valid factor mentioned here and that's IE7. It is one important step, but it is not “the answer”.

I don't care if you start reg'ing IDNs or not, that's your choice.

Of course you do. For a market to exist there must be a demand. If the demand doesn't exist naturally the best way to create it is by advertising. That's exactly what most of these threads about “the next hot thing” are.

If IDNs were all set to take off people would be quietly registering them by the thousands, not trying to convince others to buy them.

1. Are there languages other than English in the world?
2. Do the people who speak these other languages use computers and the internet?
3. Do they advertise (i.e. - Do they maintain businesses that spend money)?
4. Are they consumers (i.e. - Do they seek out goods and services online to spend money on)?
5. Would they rather use their own language to navigate the web (the proliferation of native-language sites and ads would suggest yes)?

Those are all valid points. My point is that none of those points are new. The Japanese have been speaking Japanese, advertising, consuming, and surfing since day one. We need new driving factors to push the acceptance of IDNs.

Also choose your battles wisely.. Comparing IDNs vs VOIP...... LOL

So please tell us what it should be compared to? Perhaps a domain name related service that only works on 5% of the machines out there such as the massively successful new.net?
LOL all you want. I'll just continue to LATWTTB.

1) Email of course will be supported in time. But it isn't even a consideration for Thai site owners in choosing a domain name for a website. For sites that require online support, they use a support form or chat interface.

That may well be. Perhaps IDNs will take off as a sort of grass roots movement bringing much needed native language URLs to the non-English typing masses, and laughing in the face of corporate non-America for it's continued dependence on antiquated technology such as email. I see this as a very likely path for IDNs to take, which closely mirrors the early growth of consumer use of the Internet.

The problem here is that IDN speculation presents an obstacle to this. Individuals and small organisations who can get by using hotmail instead of mail on their domain name aren't going to have the budget to buy names off speculators, which will stifle growth.

3) As for why all the great IDNs haven't been eaten up by locals, well you could say the same thing about "great ASCII domains" in 1997. There were many many still unregistered that are now worth five or six figures. Why weren't they all "eaten up" by Americans? And that was when those domains resolved on 100% of computers worldwide.

There were a number of factors why all the good names weren't taken by 97. One is price. Layingout out $200k+ in reg fees for the names I have now simply wasn't an option for me (and many others) in 97. In this respect IDNs should be far more attractive as they are the same (low) price as a any A-Z0-9- name.

The other was uncertainty of the market. No one knew exactly where the market was going. In fact in 97 there was already plenty of talk about the dotcom bubble bursting. This same factor is affecting IDNs now.

General lack of interest from locals could also be related to the total dominance of the English language in the decision making bodies on the Net i.e. ICANN, IETF, DNSO, VeriSign. If they debated and published entirely in Farsi, do you think you would get excited in what they were saying, or even know about it? No, probably not. You would be one of the 99.9% of locals that found out about IDNs after IE7.

I don't think that's a fair analogy. The use of English is an artefact of where these technologies were developed, true. But English is used in all sorts of international discussions around the world. I was having a drink at my local a while back and there were 22 different nationalities at the bar. Guess what language we all used to communicate?

I do, however, agree that publishing all these document in a wide range of languages would be a good step in the right direction. Compared to some of the things they waste money on this would be a small sum well spent.

Even if everything was in a language I couldn't read I'd still be aware of IDNs. I was involved with IDNs before the standard was created. I worked with a number of the proposed standards, including some proprietary Asian systems as well as UTF-8 DNS. I supported the latter over punycode precisely because I didn't want to end up where we are today. So I can be pretty confident when I say I'd be aware of IDNs even if all the discussion was in Martian.

Also, if Korean or Chinese or Japanese domainers were buying, selling, and discussing IDNs, do you think you would hear about it. Do you think they would turn up at NamePros IDN section? No, of course not. They have their own forums in their own languages which you are blissfully unaware of. That's the thing about languages you see. People like to talk in their own language, not one of your choosing.

I pop into Chinese forums all the time. There's some very interesting stuff going on in the China name scene, albeit not much IDN related. I've seen a few Chinese around NP. I can't say I've seen them hanging around the IDN section. Probably have their hands full dealing with what's making money now. If they are into IDNS they probably know enough to grab the good ones and sit on them for a few years rather than trying to stir up hype amongst speculators.

I do agree that IE7 isn't the only thing that is needed to get IDNs becoming accepted in the marketplace. But it seems remarkably logical that going from a state where only 5% of browsers resolve IDNs to potentially 100% is going to the event that will really get the IDN ball rolling. How fast it rolls and how big it gets, we will all find out in the next 12 months.

Let's just hope MS manages to get IE7 released within the next twelve months, let alone we see the impact it has on IDNs

 

[ThaiIDNs]

Very interesting about you saying you worked on "some proprietary Asian systems". I tracked them from the beginning. They just served to confuse the marketplace and were always doomed to failure.

As for comparing IDNs to new.net, that is ultimately the worst comparison you could ever wish to bring out into the arena. Because new.net is exactly the same sort of proprietary "alternative root" system that was also always doomed to failure. Anyone can dream up another "new.net" or indeed any other "proprietary DNS system" supported through dodgy plug-ins and bribing ISPs and launch into the marketplace. But they always have failed and always will.

IDNs have taken so long to a large extent because they are a real IETF standard, and that standardization process is extremely long and tedious. But IDNs are succeeding precisely because of it.

It's very interesting you seem to think current registrants are just here to sell domains on to local companies:

"The problem here is that IDN speculation presents an obstacle to this. Individuals and small organisations who can get by using hotmail instead of mail on their domain name aren't going to have the budget to buy names off speculators, which will stifle growth."

Anyone with a brain has been buying generic IDNs that will create income through type-ins and search engine placements, not to sell on. I have personally never come across a search engine that asks whether you have email services active on the keyword you are targetting before giving a high placement. You need to re-think what IDNers are investing in.

You also seem to imply that everyone buying IDNs is somehow investing in a "distant future" where they will start making money. Again, another illusion by someone not active, just watching from the sidelines. IDNs are generating income now. When IE7 is released Q4 (not 12 months time), they will start making alot more money.

I love your comment about Chinese not coming into the IDN forum at NamePros. You are missing the point entirely again. If they were into IDNs, they wouldn't go to NamePros. They come to NamePros because of ASCII domains. NamePros has a tiny section on IDNs, and it is completely in English !! Of course if "random" people from the globe meet in a bar (presumably not in China lol), they will be force to communicate in English. But IDNs are about empowering people to speak to each other in their own language. If you go to a Thai bar in Thailand, people speak Thai. That is the IDN market. Local domains for the local market.

You can sit there and raise objection after objection, and I'm sure you will, but those of us that own quality IDNs already know the true story.

And by the way, if you were using VoIP 20 years ago i.e 1986, that's really amazing