The long, winding road to multilingual domain names
The domain name system, because it only supports ASCII characters, has long been an obstacle for non-English speakers. Multilingual domain names, also known as internationalized domain names (IDNs), promise to create an Internet that is globally user friendly. But getting there has not been easy.
Currently, we are in the "workaround" stage of multilingual domain names. One of the more popular workarounds, multilingual "keywords," disappeared last week when RealNames closed up shop.
RealNames had been trying to make a business out of registering keywords. Keywords, in theory, make it easier to find a Web page. Instead of typing in "www.amazon.com," you could type in "Amazon" (using a Microsoft IE browser) and you'd be taken to the site. I was never a fan of keywords, but I did support the company's more recent efforts to support multilingual keywords. Last year, RealNames partnered with Verisign to register and resolve mulitlingual domain names. By treating an IDN as a keyword, someone in Japan could enter the domain name in Japanese script and be taken to the target site. While the keywords were not a long-term solution, they did at least work.
But not any more. Last week, Microsoft decided not to renew its contract with RealNames and the company folded. If you want the gory details, read the CEO's account. It's pretty interesting and hints at a Microsoft plan to offer its own version of keywords.
So what does this mean for IDNs and those who rely on them? Well, there are a few other workarounds out there, such as i-dns.net and Walid. But the long-term solution is in the hands of the standards bodies and the browser manufacturers.
Where are
the standards?
Granted, the process of retrofitting an ASCII-only DNS to accept
Unicode characters is no easy
task. Many experts are not too thrilled that the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF) is tweaking the DNS at all; many claim that opening
up the DNS to thousands of new characters will also open up the
DNS to thousands of new security
risks.
Nevertheless, it appears that the IETF is close to formalizing standards that will make IDN a reality (there are several standards that, when implemented together, will support IDNs). Of course, the recommendations haven't been approved by IESG and the browser makers still haven't implemented support for IDNs (though I'm told they will).