The World Wide Web will soon allow non-Latin languages to be used in URLs, an international internet body has confirmed.
Websites such as visitkorea.or.kr can soon drop the English characters in favour of its native text, while the official Iraqi Parliament website will no longer need to be www.parliament.iq, and instead be written in Arabic, or Russian, or Hindi, or any language at all.
Allowing websites to not just be based on Latin text, the theory goes, will make the web more accessible for many people around the world.
Plans for a more global internet structure were announced late in October, having been established since July 2008.
Shortly after the landmark initiative was announced, the communications minister for Egypt said the nation see the world's first Arabic language domain.
"The IDN [International Domain Names] program will encompass close to one hundred thousand characters, opening up the internet to billions of potential users around the globe," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), as quoted by the BBC.
Advertisement
Related Stories
- Daily deals websites get the Apprentice treatment May 23rd 2012 at 9:58PM
- Google Chrome takes most popular browser crown from IE May 22nd 2012 at 1:33PM
- Have your say: Does your business listen to complaints on Twitter? May 21st 2012 at 10:56AM
- Google introduces Knowledge Graph for more intelligent search May 17th 2012 at 10:55AM
- Twitter reaches 10-million user milestone in the UK May 16th 2012 at 2:33PM
- SOCA hit by cyber attack May 3rd 2012 at 4:45PM
- Follow the PCR Retail Boot Camp news on Twitter May 1st 2012 at 11:05AM
- Google chief warns of threat to the free web Apr 16th 2012 at 8:56AM
- Groupon complaints pile up Feb 29th 2012 at 9:05AM
- Rise of the planet of the apps Dec 15th 2011 at 2:18PM
