Internationalized Domain Names Open Obligation, Opportunity

By Jay Lyman

July 23, 2004 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Much of the discussion at ICANN's (icann.org) recent meetings in Kuala Lumpur focused on Internationalized Domain Names and the use of local languages and characters, promoting the addition of a range of character sets without damaging the end-to-end interworking of today's Internet, which is limited mainly to specifically coded Latin characters.

At the same time, registration for the new .eu domain name is on the horizon, and would bring the number of European and generic domain extensions now available for unrestricted registration to more than 28. EurID, the organization chosen by the European Commission for management of the .eu domain says it has yet to accredit any registrars, and that no companies are yet qualified to begin accepting pre-registrations.

EURid says it must finalize an agreement with the European Commission before it begins accrediting registrars.

Some companies are beginning to offer services around the domain, however. EuroDNS (eurodns.com) urged companies to prepare registration applications, which will be processed on a first come, first serve basis, and to submit pre-registration applications to stay up to speed on the opening of actual registration.

According to the EURid Web site, companies offering "pre-registration" at this point would essentially be offering to make an application for the registration of the domain name to registrars as soon as the registration process is formally initiated.

Frost and Sullivan senior analyst Mukul Krishna said while most major companies with major brands have learned to spend resources finding and securing the right domain names, squatting is still an issue and keeping up with new domains can be challenging.

"It's a big hassle trying to get the appropriate domains," Krishna said. "It's really an offshoot of people realizing that to be a global company, they need a worldwide online presence."

Through their own research and internal units, companies are much more aware of the problems they might encounter in a market where they want a domain and they are getting proactive, according to Krishna. For Web hosts, who probably prefer one simple address, Krishna said the increase and internationalization of domain names creates a hassle.

"They would prefer not to do it," he said. "The business community prefers countries don't do that. The view is they are not business friendly and it makes it difficult.

"Still, it's a real way to generate revenue," Krishna added.

ICANN officials meeting in Malaysia indicated that international effort and talent across many different fields are required to promote IDNs and local language characters, which is one of the group's biggest challenges, according to ICANN president and chief executive officer Paul Twomey.

"ICANN was facilitating this event to bring experts together to share knowledge, opinions, and experiences so that the Internet community can move this issue forward," Twomey said.

ICANN warns that the technical effects of IDNs are "far-ranging," as these specially-coded strings are presented to the many applications that deal directly with domain names and were not programmed to deal with other than a limited set of ASCII-coded Latin characters.

A new ICANN group known as the country code Name Supporting Organization also held its first meeting in Malaysia and began its work of developing and recommending a narrow range of global policies on country code top-level domains.

"We have reached consensus on a number of administrative and logistical issues very quickly, and look forward to working closely with ICANN's other supporting organizations, advisory committees, ICANN staff and board as well as other ccTLD managers who are not yet members of ccNSO," said the council's interim chair Chris Disspain.

While EuroDNS urges companies and individuals to "be aware of these changes and to secure their brand and company names across Europe," regarding the new .eu domain name, there are other reasons for registering new domain names across the globe.

Heather Carle, a spokesperson for Dublin-based .info registry Afilias, said there has not been a broad brand-protection trend in new domain registrations for German script IDNs, which opened last March. Instead, Carle said, new registrants -- which are taking advantage of German-only characters in Internet addresses -- view the internationalized names as an opportunity in a new market.

"It's more a matter of how you want to target your message than it is protecting brand," Carle said.

Carle, who said companies typically take advantage of pre-registration only when it is well publicized, added that many nations are desperate to make money off of country codes and realize they can take advantage of the trend toward IDNs and internationalization of the Web in general.

EuroDNS says that, even though Sweden, Spain, France and soon Italy will have opened up registration rules to encourage companies and individuals to register .eu domain names, many companies are unaware of the developments in Europe.