The timing of the move is poignant, with yesterday marking 40 years of email. Today's announcement will be the biggest change to the way the internet works since it was first created.
At its annual meeting in Seoul the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers board (Icann) said the first internet addresses containing non-Latin characters from start to finish will soon be online, 'thanks to today's approval of the new Internationalized Domain Name Fast Track Process' by Icann.
Domain names will be allowed in Arabic and Chinese, as well as other scripts, allowing much easier internet use for the more than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet but who speak languages with non-Latin script.
Icann said their Fast Track Process launches on November 16th, and will allow nations and territories to apply for internet extensions reflecting their name – and made up of characters from their national language.
If the applications meet criteria that includes government and community support and a stability evaluation, the applicants will be approved to start accepting registrations.
'The coming introduction of non-Latin characters represents the biggest technical change to the internet since it was created four decades ago,' said Icann chairman Peter Dengate Thrush.
'Right now internet address endings are limited to Latin characters – A to Z. But the Fast Track Process is the first step in bringing the 100,000 characters of the languages of the world online for domain names.'
'This is only the first step, but it is an incredibly big one and an historic move toward the internationalization of the internet,' added Rod Beckstrom, Icann's president and CEO.
At its annual meeting in Seoul the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers board (Icann) said the first internet addresses containing non-Latin characters from start to finish will soon be online, 'thanks to today's approval of the new Internationalized Domain Name Fast Track Process' by Icann.
Domain names will be allowed in Arabic and Chinese, as well as other scripts, allowing much easier internet use for the more than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the internet but who speak languages with non-Latin script.
Icann said their Fast Track Process launches on November 16th, and will allow nations and territories to apply for internet extensions reflecting their name – and made up of characters from their national language.
If the applications meet criteria that includes government and community support and a stability evaluation, the applicants will be approved to start accepting registrations.
'The coming introduction of non-Latin characters represents the biggest technical change to the internet since it was created four decades ago,' said Icann chairman Peter Dengate Thrush.
'Right now internet address endings are limited to Latin characters – A to Z. But the Fast Track Process is the first step in bringing the 100,000 characters of the languages of the world online for domain names.'
'This is only the first step, but it is an incredibly big one and an historic move toward the internationalization of the internet,' added Rod Beckstrom, Icann's president and CEO.
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