Just another IDN article

[Explorer]

Seems like people are catching up to the idea.
http://gigaom.com/2007/05/08/idna-an...the-global-web

[mdw]

Om Malik wants to fund a punycode translator? Bram!!! Send this guy an invoice!

[jacksonm]

Originally Posted by mdw

Om Malik wants to fund a punycode translator? Bram!!! Send this guy an invoice!

Note that what he is talking about is far more complex than a simple punycode converter.

Imagine this use case:

- an ascii keyboard user (who perhaps reads arabic) wants to go to the arabic IDN website of "shoes.com", but he can't type shoes.com in arabic as he has a US keyboard

-> so he goes to a translator site, selects english input, arabic output, and types shoes.com in english

-> translator does a cross reference (real nightmare here), and spits out a punycode that he can click on, etc


I believe this is exactly what the guy is talking about. I have implemented sort of a beginning to this type of tool on my home network, where you feed it a list of japanese words, it spits out punycodes and does a dictionary lookup and prints english translations if found. I planned to add english to japanese lookups, and more languages later as well. Problem is that many electronic dictionaries are copyrighted and not free. There are quite a few free ones, but the quality isn't that great.


.

[thefabfive]

I really don't understand the problem here.

If you can read/write in another language surely you can add that language to your US keyboard. Alt-Shift is not difficult to remember. People say 'US keyboard' as if it only works in English. I have a 'US keyboard' and at one point I had Hebrew, Greek, Korean, and English on it. I would venture that most non-English speakers have solved the riddle of getting another language on their keyboard.

If you can't read or write say, Chinese, why would you go visiting a Chinese website in the first place.

If you can read but can't write this language then for pete's sake learn how! Or learn how to use a dictionary site - there are plenty of them to choose from.

[thegenius1]

Im mad at myself for even defending IDN's on that site , im about 2 seconds away from never defending IDN's again. Hell i might even start down talking them so that no others join the party

[Fka200]

Originally Posted by thegenius1

Im mad at myself for even defending IDN's on that site , im about 2 seconds away from never defending IDN's again. Hell i might even start down talking them on those sites so that no others join the part

LOL!


Seriously, I am with Mo 100%. Basically every point he made is the exact reason why I believe in IDNs. If you don't speak Chinese, why the hell would you care about Chinese IDNs and if you are ever going to be able to access the site?

[mulligan]

Rather than allude to peoples *ignorance* why not take the same time and post something constructive, like explain why IDNs are necessary, give reasons for why they are here, show a few statistics, make the guy see the light.

No wonder people don't have much of an opinion of IDNs

[bwhhisc]

Well, the guy got it right in his summarization as "the globally correct thing to do". Google will sort our the search part, wait and see.
QUOTE:
In the end, I think that international domains make intuitive and practical sense even if they will force a change in user behavior. IDNA is leading us toward a fractured domain name space based on native language characters sets and while I am not a sociologist, this feels like the globally correct thing to do. END QUOTE

As a side comment...if you are in business and sell just about any product, you will probably find that it more likely
that the Chinese will be calling on YOU. Attend just about any major tradeshow in just about any industry and you
will see representation by Chinese firms and manufacturers. China is full throttle to do business around the world.

[thegenius1]

Originally Posted by mulligan

Rather than allude to peoples *ignorance* why not take the same time and post something constructive, like explain why IDNs are necessary, give reasons for why they are here, show a few statistics, make the guy see the light.

No wonder people don't have much of an opinion of IDNs

They are ignorant , they should read up . I dont know about you but i dont have time to hold peoples hands. Im upset with myself that i even took 2-3 minutes out of my life to even post what i did.

See the light for what , so he can take money off my table ? I dont think so ! tell him to buy a ebook "E.G"" LOL

[mulligan]

Originally Posted by thegenius1

They are ignorant , they should read up . I dont know about you but i dont have time to hold peoples hands. Im upset with myself that i even took 2-3 minutes out of my life to even post what i did.

See the light for what , so he can take money off my table ? I dont think so ! tell him to buy a ebook "E.G"" LOL

You don't have time but do have the time to insult him?
So what do you reckon your time/per minute is worth these days?

[rhys]

I'm happy for this kind of article to raise awareness among those who probably don't think about this issue much. From the look of the comments a lot of these folks still have their heads up their asses. But overall a story like this can only be good for us - I want 10 more just like it to get the word out.

It was a hilarious article too. You'd think a VC would be smart enough to talk to someone who knows his stuff before blogging a bunch of drivel. A punycode translator - cough - please. Chinese people can't use English keyboards? Please. What are they going to come up with next.

[thegenius1]

Originally Posted by mulligan

You don't have time but do have the time to insult him?
So what do you reckon your time/per minute is worth these days?

Its Worth So much i can only afford to copy and paste my last post

They are ignorant , they should read up . I dont know about you but i dont have time to hold peoples hands. Im upset with myself that i even took 2-3 minutes out of my LIFE(priceless) to even post what i did (which was not directed at any specific person).

See the light for what , so he can take money off my table ? I dont think so ! tell him to buy a ebook "E.G"" LOL

[Alphamale]

Originally Posted by rhys

Chinese people can't use English keyboards? Please. What are they going to come up with next.

Well they could always use my keyboard. I have navigated over 30 languages without a problem

[thegenius1]

Originally Posted by Alphamale

Well they could always use my keyboard. I have navigated over 30 languages without a problem

Alpha has finally unveiled a IDNers best kept secret LMAO !

That would make a awesome avatar.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by thegenius1

Im mad at myself for even defending IDN's on that site , im about 2 seconds away from never defending IDN's again. Hell i might even start down talking them so that no others join the party

That might just be the breakthrough the rest of us are looking for

Back on topic. Has he never heard of URL forwarding. (remainder of content moderated as it is not not constructive insulting those trying to find out more, however ineptly).

[markits]

I am a Chinese. Domains in Chinese language is the way to go for me.....hehe

[IDNer]

Originally Posted by markits

I am a Chinese. Domains in Chinese language is the way to go for me.....hehe

I am a Chinese too.
For Domains in Chinese language, Markits is the man who I should follows .....hehe too

[tee1]

Originally Posted by Alphamale

Well they could always use my keyboard. I have navigated over 30 languages without a problem

That has to be a new or upgraded board, why are the keys not worn out.
hehe.

tee1

[bramiozo]

How will we know that the Chinese bakery even exists? Better yet, how will someone with a Chinese input device be able to reach a website or email address in a different non-ASCII domain (such as Cyrillic, for example) if they cannot enter a Punycode string with the “xn—” characters?

The question is, why would it matter if you choose the a specific language to target a specific location. Why would it matter if the general population is aware of a local bakery ?
If you're a multilinguist in several different charactersets then it seems 'intuitive' that you have accomodated yourself to make use of your skills.

These are non-arguments and besides, you don't have to type it if you can speak/process it or if you can write/process phonetic equivalent terms.
Blunt statement; typing will be the secondary input method in a decade.

[touchring]

Originally Posted by Alphamale

Well they could always use my keyboard. I have navigated over 30 languages without a problem

I can't use this keyboard, it doesn't have an 'A'.