Internationalized domain names (IDNs)

Internationalized domain names are domains that support one or more non-ASCII characters, such as www.øl.com and 스타벅스코리아.com.

Although IDNs have been around for many years, top-level IDNs (such as .jp, .com, etc.) have proven elusive. Until recently.

Below is a running list of all top-level internationalized domain names (IDNs) that have passed the ICANN string evaluation stage.

China (cn): 中國 (traditional); 中国 (simplified)
Egypt (eg): مصر
Hong Kong (hk): 香港
Jordan (.jo): الاردن
Palestinian Territory (ps): فلسطين
Qatar (qa): قطر
Russian Federation (ru): рф
Saudi Arabia (sa): السعودية
Singapore (sg) 新加坡 (traditional Chinese); சிங்கப்பூர் (Tamil)
Sri Lanka (lk): ලංකා (Sinhalese); இலங்கை (Tamil)
Syria (sy): سورية
Taiwan (tw): 台湾 (simplified); 台灣 (traditional); 臺灣 (variant string)
Thailand (th): ไทย
Tunisia (tn): تونس
United Arab Emirates (ae): امارات

Of these domains, the following are fully approved (and some are live):

idns july20101 Internationalized domain names (IDNs)

NOTE: Earlier I incorrectly noted that Bangladesh (below) had received string approval. The domain has not yet been approved.

Bangladesh (bg): বাংলা

PS: If you’re seeing empty boxes instead of Sinhalese or Bangla characters, you don’t have the necessary font installed. This is one of the glaring differences between Windows and Mac. Below is a screen grab that shows Firefox on Mac OSX on the left and IE8 on Windows 7 on the right.

9 Comments

9 responses so far ↓

1 JP Blankert // Apr 5, 2010 at 10:55 pm

Terrific! Thanks! For a .bd by the way, it is even difficult to fax Bangla, due to very weak backbone. But I’ll try

Philippe Blankert – jpblankert at zonnet dot nl
Internationalised Domain Names B.V.
2 JP Blankert // Apr 5, 2010 at 10:56 pm

.bd: very difficult faxing .bd due to very weak backbone or even getting a reaction…

J Philippe Blankert
Internationalised Domain Names BV
3 The first non-Latin URL goes online, no sign of Indian languages yet « Technoholik // May 6, 2010 at 7:55 pm

[...] maintains a list of all internationalised domain [...]
4 Chinese IDNs have arrived | Global by Design // Jun 28, 2010 at 8:59 pm

[...] my running list of all IDNs that have passed string evaluation stage. Reading: Chinese IDNs have arrivedTweet this [...]
5 Jon // Jul 1, 2010 at 7:52 am

Hi John

Sorry to nitpick, but you’ve listed the wrong version of the Traditional Taiwanese string.

They applied for two versions, with the one you’ve listed as a ‘desired variant’ of the Traditional script. This variant was not approved by ICANN last week. The correct Traditional script version is: .台灣

cheers
jon
6 John Yunker // Jul 1, 2010 at 3:20 pm

Hi Jon — thanks for catching that. I’ll update it.
7 Jon // Jul 1, 2010 at 11:13 pm

Also, please publish a new poster version of your ccTLD map with the IDNs on it, once the dust settles. I’ll be your first customer!

cheers
jon
8 John Yunker // Jul 2, 2010 at 1:41 am

Will do! Thanks Jon.
9 Apple iPhone 4 improves international support | Global by Design // Jul 2, 2010 at 4:48 pm

[...] is a very nice touch — and I imagine that the Apple devs are right now working on adding IDNs to the [...]