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The Global Slice of the Web - Part I
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Introduction The internet is by far the most innovative and amazing revolution of the twentieth century. Despite everything you might have read or heard this global resource we have all come to know and depend upon is not global at all. We can safely assume that you surely wouldn't have noticed, but if your first language was, say Chinese, you would be singing a different tune. At most websites you will be lost trying to locate a link in a semi-translated (Yes, IE tries do that it) version in your language. Think this is tough, ever wondered how you will even get to a web site in the first place without a substantial mastery of the English alphabet. Why? Try keying in .com in Chinese if you so please!
Having said this if you think that this situation need not worry you as an English speaker, you could not be more wrong. Internationalized Domain Names for the World Wide Web has been listed as one of the most pressing priorities. In June, Vint Cerf, the 'Father of the Internet' highlighted the introduction of IDNs as vital for the future of the Net. Why all the sudden hype and urgency now?
The internet now functions on a 'global' directory system called the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS links particular websites to particular computers, which is why when one types 'www.microsoft.com' no matter where they come online from, they always arrive at the Microsoft home page. And at the moment, DNS works only with Western languages. |
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Internationalized domain name An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that (potentially) contains non-ASCII characters. Such domain names could contain letters with diacritics, as required by many European languages, or characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. However, the standard for domain names does not allow such characters, and much work has gone into finding a way around this, either by changing the standard, or by agreeing on a way to convert internationalized domain names into standard ASCII domain names while preserving the stability of the domain name system.
The logic of maintaining a single global directory (DSN) has so far been instrumental in preventing people from using different systems including their own language. But in the recent times the demand to unravel the previous agreements brings a risk of a split in the Internet itself. For then the web address you key in could open up totally different web sites depending on the where on the planet you are. Or worse an email sent to you could reach some third party.
In February of this year, China announced it had created three new top level domains that were the Chinese equivalents of .china, .com and .net. This created a major cause for worry to the internet community as that would have tempted others to follow suit. But the explanation from the Chinese Government that the domains were made available only within the country itself put these fears to rest. But the very fact that China was able and willing to separate from the global internet was an alarm bell in itself.
Since, Israel has followed suit with an internal system for domains in Hebrew just like china. And this break away from the global scenario is gaining a strong foothold with Iran, Japan and Syria joining the bandwagon. With this internal system so placed and in working order, it was only a matter of time that these smaller countries show a keen interest in taking their domains to the global playground. And why should they not? If the Western domains have been enjoying their monopoly for so long, the time has now come that they can register domains, which means their web sites can be available from anywhere in the world and not just from within the country. |
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Conclusion: good news or bad? As the situation stands now it is difficult to evade the confusion that is bound to crop up in the existing global web. From the Western point of view, because IDN allows websites to use full Unicode names, it makes it all the more easier from the other corner of the world to make a spoof site looking exactly like the other with the domain name just that substantially different from the original to go unnoticed but is in fact controlled by another party than the original owner of the original web site. This makes stealing private information from the innocent end user that much easier.
On a lesser dangerous stand point, finding 'Amazon.com' from China could lead to website giving details about the Amazon River. Frustrating in itself is it not? In the next part of this article we shall see the nuances of IDN coming in place and the intricacies of setting up geographic networks. |
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