Native Characters in the address bar

[Kent99]

Hi, this has been discussed before but I couldn't find the thread. What has to happen for a domain name to display properly in native characters? Does it vary by browser, language pack installed, keyboard input style, actual location and stated location? Given the software and settings in use in China and Japan, what percentage of people going to an idn domain site will have the native characters display properly in the address bar?

[squirrel]

I think this is up to date : http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/idn-in-google-chrome

scroll all the way down for FF, IE and the others

[domainguru]

Hi, this has been discussed before but I couldn't find the thread. What has to happen for a domain name to display properly in native characters? Does it vary by browser, language pack installed, keyboard input style, actual location and stated location? Given the software and settings in use in China and Japan, what percentage of people going to an idn domain site will have the native characters display properly in the address bar?

It varies by everything.

[Kent99]

"For TLDs that are not whitelisted (e.g., .com), Firefox always displays punycode."

This sounds like a problem until you find out that IE has %89.3 in China and %61.53 in Japan. Firefox only has %23.32 in Japan according to this page-

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-JP-monthly-200907-201008

Here's the page for China

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-CN-monthly-200907-201008

[squirrel]

You've gotta ask yourself 2 questions :
(i) is stat counter a reliable source of data in this market
(ii) in the US, FF is often used for leisure browsing, on the weekends, etc. while IE is the browser used at work. Is it the case in China, Japan ?

I say the whitelist is a problem

[Rubber Duck]

Don't worry.

FF has been successful until now because until now it has been relevent.

[Kent99]

Don't worry.

FF has been successful until now because until now it has been relevent.

Wow, always cryptic! Can you explain in excruciating detail for the woefully uninformed. (End of sarcasm)

No, seriously, can you expand?

Do you mean to say that Firefox's popularity is going to decline because they don't support IDN's?

[domainguru]

"For TLDs that are not whitelisted (e.g., .com), Firefox always displays punycode."

This sounds like a problem until you find out that IE has %89.3 in China and %61.53 in Japan. Firefox only has %23.32 in Japan according to this page-

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-JP-monthly-200907-201008

Here's the page for China

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser-CN-monthly-200907-201008

Well, IE6 is apparently still prevalent in China. That is a problem ...... although if you are trying to make money from Chinese domains, many other factors will get in your way.

[Rubber Duck]

Wow, always cryptic! Can you explain in excruciating detail for the woefully uninformed. (End of sarcasm)

No, seriously, can you expand?

Do you mean to say that Firefox's popularity is going to decline because they don't support IDN's?

Ultimately yes, people will want to use local characters in the address bar. If FF don't deliver they will lose key markets.