Here’s a new article I’ve written for UX Magazine on the emergence of internationalized domain names (IDNs). I view IDNs as an inevitable (albeit awkward) evolution of the Internet.
And here are the previous two articles I’ve written for UX Magazine:
I realize I’m a bit obsessed with country codes. It’s a sickness, I know.
After I created the Country Codes of the World map, I began looking at other platforms for the design. And since I own an iPhone, I couldn’t resist creating a custom wallpaper for it.
Here are two ccTLD wallpapers for the iPhone.
If you’d like to use one, simply save the image to your desktop and then import it to your iPhone via iPhoto or your PC images folder.
I’m using the black background currently.
I’m also working on a wallpaper for laptops and desktops. I’ll keep you posted…
In January of this year, ICANN announced that four fast-track IDNs had made it through linguistic approval — effectively clearing the way for commercialization.
Oddly missing from that list was China’s IDN.
One of the reasons ICANN initiated a fast-track process — if not the reason — was China.
China began putting pressure on ICANN a few years back by registering second-level IDNs and hinting that it would offer full-length IDNs if ICANN didn’t get moving. China’s Internet is essentially an intranet after all, so there is no reason the country couldn’t resolve full-length IDNs next week if it wanted.
Perhaps China’s IDN has already been approved ICANN has simply not gotten around to announcing it.
Still, I find the silence curious. Which is why I was interested to read that the president of ICANN, Rod Beckstrom, traveled to China recently.
This article posits that China’s IDN application was one of the issues behind his trip.
What do you think? Is China’s IDN being used as leverage by ICANN?
If you want to know the world’s most dangersous ccTLDs, ask an anti-virus software company.
McAfee has released its list of most dangerous country codes. Here are the top five:
Why is Camerooon at the top of the list?
Because .cm is a common typo by users who intended to type .com.
According to McAfee, more than 30% of all domains registered under .cm are up to no good.
I have a business idea for Verisign — why not license .cm and bundle it with .com registrations to give users a more secure domain package. I could see many companies paying for this.
China is number two. The country has made efforts recently to clean up its domain by requiring business licenses of its registrants. Some of the Western media have misinterpreted this as censorship. That’s one of the great ironies of managing top-level domains. You kinda have to keep a close eye on what the registrants are doing with these domains if you want to ensure a safer Internet.
But I digress.
And what are the safest ccTLDs? Here are the top five:
You can view a larger map here.
Bad Behavior has blocked 949 access attempts in the last 7 days.