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Most domain names are registered in ASCII characters (A to Z, 0 to 9 and the hyphen “-“). However, non-English words that require diacritics such as Spanish and French and languages that use non-Latin scripts such as Kanji and Arabic cannot be rendered in ASCII. As a result, millions of Internet users struggle to find their way online using non-native scripts and languages. Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) improve the accessibility and functionality of the Internet by enabling domain names in non-ASCII characters.
How Domain Names Work
A domain name is a unique word or phrase in a particular format that allows people to find information on the Internet. The Domain Name System (DNS) maps domain names to servers where the content resides, based on each server’s Internet Protocol (IP) address (for example, 123.45.67.254 or 2001:503:A83:0:0:2:30). When a user enters a domain name into a Web browser or sends an email, the application looks up the domain name to find the IP address. The resolution process uses the data in the DNS to determine which IP addresses correspond to a particular domain name.
Computer users around the world use different keyboards, soft keyboards or have operating systems that facilitate using their native-language script for input. IDNs use the Unicode universal character set to register and resolve script differences to simplify native language navigation.
The IDN Registration Process
A registrant requests an IDN from a registrar that supports IDNs. The registrar converts the local language characters into a sequence of supported characters using an ASCII compatible encoding (ACE). The registrar submits the ACE string to the VeriSign® Shared Registration System (SRS) where it is verified and encoded. The IDN is added to the .com and .net TLD zone files and propagated across the Internet.
IDN Resolution Process
When a user enters an IDN using local language characters into a Web browser or follows a link, IDN-enabled applications encode the characters into an ACE string that the DNS understands. The DNS processes the request and returns the information to the application. Although the process sounds simple, DNS support of different languages and scripts has required significant research and development into Scripts and Languages as well as Character Variants and Language Tags.
Who's Using IDNs?
Using IDNs
VeriSign is a leader in the propagation and adoption of IDNs to help global organizations protect and secure their brands.
- End users: VeriSign maintains a list of IDN-enabled Applications. You can use these applications to navigate the Internet, send email and ftp in your native-language script.
- Registrants: If you own a Web site or provide other Internet-based services and would like to use IDNs to help your customers, you need to register an IDN: Find a Registrar.
- Registrars: VeriSign offers IDNs in the .com, .net, .tv, and .cc TLDs. To get started, download the IDN SDKs or learn more about the Policy for IDN Code Points.
