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Companies & Domain Name Holders
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Going Global
Why Register Internationalized .com and .net
Names?
An IDN makes navigation for customers in non-English
speaking markets easier to do and easier to remember. Using local language
characters, a company registers domain names for the company name and
brands in chosen scripts. Internet users search and find the company
in their local language characters or script through IDN. IDNs make
an online presence more feasible for companies with non-English speaking
audiences.
More than 500 million people around the world
use the Internet and more than half of them read, think, and communicate
in languages other than English. By 2005, 78% of the online population
will reside outside of the U.S. and the fastest growing market is the
Asia Pacific Region where most countries use scripts with non-ASCII
characters.
The existing Domain Name System (DNS) only
recognizes ASCII characters (A-Z, 0-9 and the hyphen “-“). Until the
development of IDNs, Internet users accustomed to another script could
not browse the Internet in their own language. The limitations included
simple character differences as in the German word for street: "straße"
to whole words such as the Japanese representation for "light": .
In order for the DNS to recognize these different
characters and scripts, the system has to interpret differences in written
forms of communication and adapt to the way computer systems support
local written languages with technological solutions. VeriSign followed
international standards to establish the IDN testbed and develop the
technologies. Only accredited and certified IDN registrars can offer
IDN registration.
These local and international organizations
have adopted IDNs to reach their target audience in the language they
prefer. Follow the links to see how IDNs work. If you do not have the
VeriSign® i-Nav plug-in, you can download
it here.
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Worldwide Sites
