IDN Domains Names Are Go!

Over the past few weeks our technical team have been working on integrating IDN domain names. IDN domains are “internationalised” so with an IDN domain name you can put in the accents like the “fada” in Irish, or the Spanish N (Ñ) directly into the domain name.
So, for example, I’ve registered Mícheál.eu, while other members of our staff have grabbed their first names “as gaeilge” as well.

Here’s our press release on the subject:

Irish registrar Blacknight, leaders in domain space innovation have added EU IDNs to the domains they offer.

Introduced in 2010, an IDN or Internationalized Domain Name is a domain name in a language that does not contain ASCII characters. Internet users are now able to register IDNs in languages such as Chinese, Cyrillic, Hindi and Arabic.

The introduction of IDNs for the European Union have been particularly important as the 27 Member States of the EU have 23 official languages, many of which have non-ASCII characters in their alphabets. For The EU IDN, these characters include, for example, the Swedish å, the German ü, the Romanian ș and characters from the Bulgarian and Greek alphabets as a whole.
Any individual or organization based in the European Union is eligible to register a .eu IDN. Blacknight, evangelists for a more user friendly Internet, embrace EU IDNs and are pleased to offer them.
Michele Neylon of Blacknight says: “We are big supporters of IDNs. The Internet cannot be a great equalizer unless users are able to navigate it in their native languages. IDNs were a long time coming and now that they are here the domain registration numbers prove how sorely they were needed. “

Blacknight currently supports EU IDNs in .eu, .biz, .tel, .info and .org.

Neylon continues: “We cater to a largely European clientele so of course we offer EU IDNs. We want our customers to be able to register domain names in their native languages without any ASCII work-arounds. Blacknight is passionate about fostering positive end user experiences and we feel that IDNs are another huge step in a more accessible Internet.”

Visit http://www.blacknight.com to register your EU IDN today.

About the Author: Michele Neylon

Known for his outspoken opinions on technology and the Internet, Michele Neylon is the award winning author of several blogs and co-host of the Technology.ie podcast. A thought leader in the Internet community, Neylon is active within ICANN and an expert on policy, security, domains, ICANN, Nominet and Internet Governance. You can stalk him on various social media networks including Twitter and Instagram

5 Comments

Michael K October 13, 2011 at 00:18

Are there plans in the IEDR to enable registration of “fadas” in .ie domains?
Michele Neylon October 13, 2011 at 00:58

Michael
We’ve asked them about this more than once and they don’t believe there’s any demand for it.
Regards
Michele
Adrian Shanahan (@adrianshanahan) October 13, 2011 at 08:04

Michael,
Do you know if there is a particular reason why IEDR won’t support fadas?
I realise demand might not be high but surely they are not meant to be a commercial operation but operate to server the use of the .ie tld and it’s Irish coustomers?
I know us at http://www.cailindeas.ie and many of the other Irish language sites would like to be able to utilist fadas.
Whom might we contact in IEDR to look for an explination on this reasioning?
Regards,
Adrian
Michele Neylon October 13, 2011 at 09:36

@Adrian
Is that question addressed to me or Michael?
Regards
Michele
Adrian Shanahan (@adrianshanahan) October 13, 2011 at 14:22

Apologies it was aimed at you Michele