Sunday 3 January 2010

IDNs - The Future

  There has recently been much publicity and controversy concerning IDNs. Here I are my thoughts on the future of IDNs or maybe my thoughts on what I consider should be the future for IDNs.
  English is currently the accepted International language and so most Domain Names are ASCII. So what should an organisation do about their Domain Names? Should they just stick with their ASCII names or also use IDNs?
  I consider that an Organisation's Domain Name strategy should be determined by their customer base or desired customer base. A Local/Regional Organisation should have Domain Names in both their local language and ASCII. An International Organisation, on the other hand, should have many Domain Names in many languages.
  My observation of many International Organisations' Websites is that, mostly, the content is predominantly/solely English. So why bother with multiple IDNs in multiple languages when they just resolve to a Website written in English?
  My answer to that question is: IDNs are just one small part of the Internationalisation of IT. AI (Adaptive Internationalised) Websites are one of the other parts of the Internationalisation of IT.
  An AI Website can adapt content according to:
  • Language/Script of the IDN used for access
  • The preferred display language setting of the visiting browser
  • The Region (GeoLocation) of the visiting browser
  More on AI Websites another time ☺