Internet addresses in Arabic activated for Egypt, Arabia, UAE; first with non-Latin characters
By APThursday, May 6, 2010
First non-Latin Internet domain names activated
NEW YORK — It’s now possible for websites to use addresses entirely in Arabic.
The first three domain names in non-Latin characters were added to the Internet’s master directories on Wednesday, following final approval last month by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. It’s the first major change to the Internet domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.
Until now, websites had to end their addresses with “.com” or another string using Latin characters. The change allows websites to adopt Arabic suffixes for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Registrations are expected to begin soon.
A suffix for Russia in Cyrillic is expected to be added to the master list soon as well. Proposals for several others have received preliminary approval and should be activated by year’s end.
