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Web domain name language overhaul coming soon
Icann is finalising plans to introduce web domain addresses using non-Latin characters, marking the biggest change to the system in its history
A month after it formally severed all ties to the US government, internet regulation body Icann said it is finalising plans to introduce web domain addresses using non-Latin characters, marking the first time web addresses will be written natively in Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew and other languages.
It marks the biggest change to the system in its history, the organisation said.
If the proposal is approved on 30 October, the first applications for non-Latin domains would be accepted by 16 November, Icann said. The first Internationalized Domain Names, or IDNs, could go live by mid-2010.
For the full story on Web domain names written in Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian coming soon, see ZDNet.com.