question .de ccTLD question

[Gary Moore]

I recently picked up sehrsüß.de (very cute). My question is that the "ß" is the same as "ss", but if I remember right, when I was searching, "sehrsüss.de" was taken. That is why I got "sehrsüß", because it was availible. Now, in GoDaddy it shows up as both. And when I look it up in whois, it shows me as the owner of sehrsüss.de. Do I basically own both versions since it is the same word technically? My only guess is that the "ss" version wasn't actually taken. GoDaddy does mess that up sometimes when searching and says something isn't available when it actually is. Just trying to clarify. Thank you.

 

[TLDNIC]

"ß" is not the same as "ss" in domain names.

sehrsüß.de (xn--sehrs-pqa6r.de) is not registered, while sehrsüss.de (xn--sehrsss-r2a.de) is taken.

To be on the safe side you can convert a unicode domain to punicode prior to registering it:

punycode.tldnic.net

However, I think with sehrsüss.de you got a much better domain name than sehrsüß.de is.
(German native speaker here).

 

[Gary Moore]

Thank you, this must be the issue I am having with Sedo. They kept telling me sehrsüß.de was not registered and wouldn't let me add it. That is the domain I searched in GoDaddy, but it must have changed it on me. I agree sehrsüss.de is much better and what I wanted in the first place. Thank s for the help.

 

[Gary Moore]

May I ask where you searched it to find out which one was registered? Most places I go, the Umlaut messes up the search.

 

[TLDNIC]

I converted it into punycode first:
punycode.tldnic.net
then I searched for the punycoded versions on:
whois.tldnic.net

However, it also returns your "sehrsüss.de" registration there, when searching for "sehrsüß.de".
=> You will always need to convert IDNs into punycode to make sure you get the result you want.

Universal acceptance of IDNs is unfortunately still low.

 

[Gary Moore]

Thank again, I appreciate the info and help.

 

[Kuli]

"ß" is not the same as "ss" in domain names.

sehrsüß.de (xn--sehrs-pqa6r.de) is not registered, while sehrsüss.de (xn--sehrsss-r2a.de) is taken.

As a native German speaker, I can tell you that this is wrong.

While normal Umlauts are being transformed via IDN to some xn--whatever stuff, the ß (Esszett) ist special: It's a complete synonym for ss. Not in normal language, but as it's treated in IDN.

You can check that when entering the domain in the browser, it will replace ß with ss.

So, when you registered sehrsüß.de, you're actually the owner of sehrsüss.de as well.

 

[TLDNIC]

sehrsüß.de is available for registration, sehrsüss.de is taken.
check here:
name(.)com/domain/search-4-1/?keyword=xn--sehrs-pqa6r.de

 

[usernamex]

I get a different result using another tool
https://www.punycoder.com/
Invalid Punycode: xn--sehrs-pqa6r.de

and it shows @Kuli is correct - they are equivalent in punycode
sehrsüß.de = xn--sehrsss-r2a.de
sehrsüss.de = xn--sehrsss-r2a.de

I have had issues with IDN correctly showing availability at GD and other registrars, Hexonet seems to handle them the best, or I search the converted punycode direct at the registry.

 

[Hypersot]

if we as domainers have so much trouble figuring out the IDNs, can you imagine the end-users' confusion? :/

 

[TLDNIC]

Interesting.
I'm just wondering what will happen when someone registers "xn--sehrs-pqa6r.de", since this is shown as available at registrars. Will the registration fail?

 

[TLDNIC]

Found something, Kuli is right indeed:
afilias.info/faq/can-i-register-domain-names-character-%C3%9F-eszet
so I'm assuming that the registration of xn--sehrs-pqa6r.de would simply fail.

 

[usernamex]

I think it would just take it at it's meaningless face value: xn [hyphen] [hyphen] sehrs [hyphen] pqa6r [dot] de

When I enter the correct punycode xn--sehrsss-r2a.de in my URL bar, firefox automatically shows the converted IDN (as http:// sehrsüss .de/ ), and I get to the proper page
Although some extensions do the opposite, enter the IDN they only show punycode, proly to avoid abuse

 

[Kuli]

if we as domainers have so much trouble figuring out the IDNs, can you imagine the end-users' confusion? :/

The end users usually don't care about puny code, they'll just the domains as they are.

 

[Gary Moore]

Thanks for all the insight on this, and glad I could spark a little conversation with my lack of understanding.

 

[Hypersot]

The end users usually don't care about puny code, they'll just the domains as they are.

which is? .. how are they exactly, ...üss.de or ...üß.de?
or do you expect them to come over to this thread and get educated?

don't get me wrong, I'm not against IDNs, my language is full of them (we have no latin letters at all in our alphabet) , it's the way the whole thing is handled by the appropriate services that gets to me.

 

[Kuli]

which is? .. how are they exactly, ...üss.de or ...üß.de?
or do you expect them to come over to this thread and get educated?

No, I expected an end user to simply use URLs as they are. And that works with the current IDN. If the ß in zuckersüß is treated as a replacement for ss, or as an own special character, is of no interest as long as the client program (most often the browser) handles it correctly. What it usually does.

 

[akropolis]

by the way, most browsers dont support "ß", and automatically redirect to the "ss" version, even when the owner of the "ss"-domain is a different person.
the new firefox 45 seems to support it, but not without problems.