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. 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
There seems to be a lot of buzz here these days around tools like Twitter and applications like Facebook. Which social media tools are the most popular in China right now? Also, how does the usage breakout by age group? Is there an equivalent of MySpace for Chinese teens? Or, do they use MySpace? Enjoy your trip!
Posted by: Kevin Reid | October 12, 2007 at 04:53 PM
It's funny that your headline is so U.S.-centric. In China, Japan, Russia and other countries, their alphabet isn't "foreign", it's their home language. ;-)
Have a great trip, Debbie. I'm looking forward to reading (and seeing videos) all about it.
Posted by: Eric Eggertson | October 13, 2007 at 09:46 AM
Eric,
Great point. The headline didn't feel quite right the way I wrote it. I changed it to "native" - although that might not be quite right either.
Posted by: Debbie Weil | October 14, 2007 at 09:38 AM
tout simplement rejoindre une salle de poker en ligne, les mains jouent un couple. Ou,
Posted by: poker | May 06, 2011 at 10:24 AM