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Internationalized Domain Name Program Adds Two Languages
Thai, Urdu wikis added for users to share experiences, insights
5 June 2008
MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: Thai and Urdu are the newest languages available on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers wikipages set up for the global testing of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs).
"Each new language made available means more users from around the world will be more naturally able to share their experiences as we test the technical impact of IDNs," said Tina Dam, Director of ICANN’s IDN Program. "The wikipages are also a great tool for people to learn — in their own language — about the work being done to make close to 100,000 characters from the languages of the world available for top level Internet addresses."
ICANN launched the wiki pages with the domain name "example.test" last October in the 11 languages — Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil. Since then, Hebrew and Amharic have been added.
The wikis allow Internet users to establish their own subpages with their own names in their own language — one suggestion is: example.test/yourname.
Thai is internationalized on the fourth level and can be accessed via the following links:
http://xn--o3cw4h.idn.icann.org
Urdu uses the same script as Persian and can therefore also be accessed through the Persian .test TLD.
http://xn--hhbbbh02d.xn--hgbk6aj7f53bba
http://xn--mgbqf7g.idn.icann.org
More information, as well as links to all of the wikis, is available at http://idn.icann.org.
About ICANN:
ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that help computers reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability. ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company. For more information please visit: www.icann.org.
Media Contacts:
Jason Keenan
Media Adviser, ICANN
Ph: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan@icann.org
International: Andrew Robertson
Edelman (London)
Ph: +44 7921 588 770
E: andrew.robertson@edelman.com
