Non-Latin scripts OK in domain names

Associated Press

Seoul, South Korea -- The nonprofit body that oversees Internet addresses approved Friday the use of Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and other scripts not based on Latin characters in a decision that could make the Web dramatically more inclusive.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers voted to allow such scripts in domain names at the conclusion of a weeklong meeting in Seoul, South Korea's capital.

The result clears the way for governments or their designees to submit requests for specific names, likely beginning Nov. 16. Internet users could start seeing them in use early next year, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand has been among the highest, ICANN officials say.

"This represents one small step for ICANN, but one big step for half of mankind who use non-Latin scripts, such as those in Korea, China and the Arabic speaking world as well as across Asia, Africa and the rest of the world," Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's chief executive, said ahead of the vote.

Domain names -- the Internet addresses that end in ".com" and other suffixes -- are the key monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post.

Since their creation in the 1980s, domain names have been limited to the 26 characters in the Latin alphabet used in English, 10 numerals and the hyphen.