The end of the U.S.-centric Internet? ICANN to experiment with domain names in native scripts

Riddle: they're a global phenomenon. But most of them are in English and in Roman characters. What are they?

Answer: You guessed it; domain names like www.debbieweil.com. 

The U.S. has long been accused - rightly so - of digital colonialism. Interestingly, the technology for creating multilingual domains was created ten years ago. But it's never been put to the test.

This week ICANN decided to start experimenting with domain names written entirely in native script or characters. So instead of reaching the Google China blog by typing in www.googlechinablog.com you would type in: [Chinese text].[Chinese text].

I'll try and post a URL typed entirely in Chinese characters when I get to China. Can't do it from here.

[via A Script for Every Surfer - The Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2007]

Useful Link

The ICANN blog on new top-level domains

50 Canadian blogs

Since I'm on my "outside-the-U.S." tear, here's a good list of Canadian blogs, courtesy of David Forde.

P.S. Note to self: do more short blog entries like this.