Question: The new TLDs will be english words. What about promoting the use of other languages ? For a news bulletin i will have to use the news TLD in Italy. Why not the italian word notizie, without risking to conflict with an english site ?

Nominee Replies

Jeanette Hofmann - posted on 2000-10-04 14:05:13 Are you sure? I've seen people on mailing lists already puzzling over the meaning of several of the proposed TLDs. What, for example, means .pid, a TLD proposed by DADA Spa, an Italian organization. Or, .i, to give another example. Would you describe .i as an English term? I could present many other examples that refute your observation. Olivier Muron is right though. As soon as we get multilingual domain names, TLDs will become even more diverse than those proposed right now. Alf Hansen - posted on 2000-10-04 13:40:17 I think applications should not be refused because the word is not English. But I do not think it is a good idea to have one new TLD represented with several translations of the same word into a large number of languages. The TLD word should be a word that can be well understood by all users in the Global Internet Community, not necessarily an English word. Olivier Muron - posted on 2000-10-04 08:40:28 I fully agree with you comment. I was very surprised to discover that almost all applications received by ICANN are based on english words. What are the reasons for this situation: - I don't think the size of the market was the main reason, - the main reason is bad cultural habbit: the internet community has been living in an english domain world for a very long time and it is hard for them to think otherwise! I think that progresses to be made towars IDN by IETF and ICANN will help to change the minds of the people and make their think of domain names in their native language.