N00B IDN question

[RickyG]

Hello,
Here is my stupid question:

IDN domain names. Are there diferent IDN's for each country or launguage? I guess I am asking what ne IDN means is differnt or means nothing in another launguage.

RickyG

 

[Fka200]

IDNS are International Domain Names.

They are domains that use different characters for websites... an example would be 借金.com or türkiye.com. Notice they are not in english --- these domains have two identities: one as the unicode (examples shown above are unicode) and one as punycode -- (türkiye.com also is xn--trkiye-3ya.com). Before October, Internet Explorer didn't support these domains without the use of a plugin. Now that Internet explorer 7 is out and windows vista is going to be released --- these domains will be widely used. The logic behind these domains is that not everyone on the web speaks english --- as a matter of fact, very FEW people on the net speak english... these domains break the barrier and allow people to access websites in their native language. Traffic is rising every month, and december traffic has been VERY good --- I am still waiting for Vista to be released to different countries and curiously waiting to see what will happen next. Most of the IDNs are being developed now, and that market should mature within a year or so.

Goodluck, and do research before buying an IDN if you are not a native speaker.

Dynadot.com
Domainsite.com
Moniker.com

Those registrars support IDN purchases.

 

[RickyG]

Thank you! I also sent you a PM.
RIckyG

 

[我操你妈]

Why are some IDNs without the puntuations and look just like the pure english?

 

[Fka200]

Why are some IDNs without the puntuations and look just like the pure english?

Those are Crylic domains --- they look like english but are not.

 

[Rubber Duck]

Thank you! I also sent you a PM.
RIckyG

Hi, I visited your website and see that you are in the business of selling domains. I guess your query at least in part relates to selling domains.

If you wish to sell IDN, the sites to have a look at Domainsite.com that has been a pioneer in this business and Moniker.com who are recent entrants but have built a good IDN friendly platform including a Whois that resolves the Unicode characters directly.

If you need further advice on this, feel free to contact me.

 

[RickyG]

I was looking to buy some IDN but didnt know if some were country specific in the way they were written

 

[Rubber Duck]

I was looking to buy some IDN but didnt know if some were country specific in the way they were written

Well you can either go for ccTLDs or gTLDs the same as conventional domains. In China for example that would mean dot CN or dot Com.

At the moment China is the place selling IDN.IDN, if you buy dot CN you get the matching IDN.IDN, which will resolve if you have one of the big Chinese ISP. ICANN is in the process of implementing IDN.IDN at the root but hasn't done this yet. This can either be done by adding first level punycode to the root or by using DNAME subsitution. They are still finalising the technical and policy issues on this. Implementing this for Chinese is fairly simple, one country, quite a few languages, but only one character set. It get more complexed with countries like India where there a several dozen signifcant languages and quite a few distinct character sets. When it comes to gTLDs it is a whole different ball game. Dot Com essentially needs to be represented in every major script in the world and perhaps have different representations within those scripts for various languages. For example Persian/Farsi shares an alphabet with Arabic but it is a separate language with it own words. The domains will of course always resolve with com after the dot, which for the time being is the only representation that works.

When it comes to the Keywords you wish to register, you need to determine which language you require and acquire the keywords in the local language script. These need to be converted to punycode for registration, but a good registrar such as Domainsite.com or Moniker should do that for you. Punycode is an extra level of encodement that is not required with conventional domains that use the Latin Alphabet. The extended Unicode character sets that extend into tens of thousands of characters, are each attributed numbers in the same way the ASCII character set is. The Unicode characters cannot be put through the root directly and neither can the Unicode Points. What happens is that your browser encodes the Unicode into punycode, which comprises only ASCII characters and is compatible with the ICANN root before the names are resolved. The registery nameservers recognise the punycode, which is the registry's primary reference, and can provide the relevant IP address for the website based on this information.

All you need to do at the moment is decide which extension you wish to register, and the local character translation of the keyword that you wish to register. If you are intending use Far East, Complex or Left to Right character sets such as Chinese, Thai or Arabic, you will need to ensure that that the extra fonts are installed in your Windows Operating system, unless of course you have a MAC. For some of the more obscure languages you may have to research your own Unicode fonts.

Sounds complicated but once you have grasped these steps, the worst is over.

 

[rhys]

I was looking to buy some IDN but didnt know if some were country specific in the way they were written

IDNs are language specific. Each language has a defined character set.

To the right of the IDN is the extension which is currently only expressed in ASCII though in the future it may go IDN as well. The extension may be either gTLD or ccTLD i.e. .com/.net or .jp / .ru

To be clear, an ASCII.jp is not an IDN.

Depending on the country you are looking to buy for, a given extension may be preferable. For example in Japan, users know .jp very well, followed by .com and then .net and, often for adult names .tv as well.