Go Daddy .CA domain names are now available with French characters
Web hosting provider and domain registrar Go Daddy announced on Sunday that its .CA domain names are now available with French characters.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority announced over the weekend that its support for the full range of French characters, including û, à, ç, and ë, is now available as well.
Go Daddy said its move will help French-Canadian businesses and individuals grow their brand with a domain in more than one language. For example, a customer can register grace.ca and grâce.ca, with exclusive rights to all variants of the domain name.
There are 9.5 million Francophones in Canada, which represents nearly one-third of Canada’s overall population. Web hosts are increasingly looking to support the French-speaking population in Canada by offering customer service in French, and now domains that can be registered with French characters.
“This is great news for all Canadians because it means they can now use the .CA domain in Canada’s two official languages, French and English,” Byron Holland, president and CEO of CIRA said in a statement. “This is also great news for owners of .CA domains and their website visitors because it means that domain names can precisely match names, businesses and trademarks.”
While Go Daddy has focused recent efforts in supporting its customers in India, Go Daddy has offered .CA domain names since 2008, and began accepting Canadian dollars in 2011.
Talk back: What do you think of Go Daddy and the Canadian Internet Registry offering French character support with the .CA domain? Do you hope to see more domain language support with the new TLDs? Let us know in a comment.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson is the Editor in Chief of the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
If the website is targeted for the Canadian users then having domain name in English and french characters would surely be helpful. It would tempt the current website owners to register their English version of domains in french characters. A new revenue stream for the domain registry.