Follow-up: Help test internationalized domain names

As I reported last week (Help test internationalized domain names 2007-10-15), the time has come to see how non-Latin characters will work in domain names. The Internet administrators at ICANN have set up test domains (http://example.test) in eleven writing systems. You can type them into different browsers, put them in E-mails, and create a wiki page with your name in non-Latin characters at each domain.

Here’re the domains:

• http://مثال.إختبار/الصفحة_الرئيسية Arabic
• http://例子.测试/首页 Chinese (simplified characters)
• http://例子.測試/首頁 Chinese (traditional characters)
• http://παράδειγμα.δοκιμή/Αρχική_σελίδα Greek
• http://उदाहरण.परीक्षा/मुख्य_पृष्ठ Hindi
• http://例え.テスト/メインページ Japanese
• http://실례.테스트/대문 Korean
• http://مثال.آزمایشی/صفحه‌ی_اصلی Persian/Farsi
• http://пример.испытание/Заглавная_страница Russian
• http://உதாரணம்.பரிட்சை/முதற்_பக்கம் Tamil
• http://בײַשפּיל.טעסט/הויפּט_זײַט Yiddish

It’s still ASCII encoding; each domain has a transliteration encoding starting with an “xn--” prefix.

Here’re the actual addresses:

• http://xn--mgbh0fb.xn--kgbechtv/ Arabic
• http://xn--fsqu00a.xn--0zwm56d/ Chinese (simplified characters)
• http://xn--fsqu00a.xn--g6w251d/ Chinese (traditional characters)
• http://xn--hxajbheg2az3al.xn--jxalpdlp/ Greek
• http://xn--p1b6ci4b4b3a.xn--11b5bs3a9aj6g/ Hindi
• http://xn--r8jz45g.xn--zckzah/ Japanese
• http://xn--9n2bp8q.xn--9t4b11yi5a/ Korean
• http://xn--mgbh0fb.xn--hgbk6aj7f53bba/ Persian/Farsi
• http://xn--e1afmkfd.xn--80akhbyknj4f/ Russian
• http://xn--zkc6cc5bi7f6e.xn--hlcj6aya9esc7a/ Tamil
• http://xn--fdbk5d8ap9b8a8d.xn--deba0ad/ Yiddish

When you get into Web pages, the encoding gets rather long. For example, this would be the wiki listing for Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa:

http://例え.テスト/黒澤明

Here’s what you may see in your browser address bar:

http://xn--r8jz45g.xn--zckzah/%E9%BB%92%E6%BE%A4%E6%98%8E

They worked in my browser and E-mail. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the Chinese and Japanese domains work with both the ASCII period/full stop “dot” (.) and with the Chinese/Japanese open-circle period (。).

More information at:

My Name, My Language, My Internet: IDN Test Goes Live

IDNwiki