ICANN has tested and is looking to implement Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs), the initial public test results have been collected.
ICANN released preliminary statistics Monday covering the first public tests of the long awaited localised domains.
In truth, IDNs have been in the testing phase for years, but only in the weeks leading up to the latest ICANN meeting did ICANN allow the Joe Sixpacks of the non-English speaking world to test the system out, albeit in a very limited capacity. This correspondent was fortunate enough to get a personal walk-through of the system at the Los Angeles meeting courtesy of ICANN's IDN honcho Tina Dam.
The results are in, and the black helicopter compulsives can rejoice: the Chinese are indeed threat numero uno to western civilisation, if ICANN's numbers are to be believed.
Chinese-literate internet enthusiasts accounted for a whopping 40 per cent of all beta testers, followed weakly by our other former cold war foil, the Russian-speaking crowd, at a relatively feeble 13 per cent.
Somewhat surprisingly, Opera, which at the time of the meeting was the only fully compatible IDN web browser, hasn't gained any traction whatsoever in the browser wars as result of its technological superiority, even among early adopters.
About ICANN
ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers. These include domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols. Computers use these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability.
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