IDNs - should symbol sets be included?

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Wallace Koehler, an Director/Professor in the MLIS Program at Valdosta State University asks why can’t symbols be intermixed in domain names, and included when Internationalised Domain Names are included, in an article in Information Today.

Koehler says that, “In principle, there is no reason why symbols sets could not be intermixed. For example, from randomly entering Unicode symbols he proposes the following TLD: ; that is to say Unicode’s FB38, 21AF, and 2345.

It is equally possible to remain in the Roman character domain and add accent marks to the mix: What if .com were revised and ICANN supported .com, .còm, .cóm, .côm, .cõm, and .cöm?”

Koehler examines some of the complexities in introducing IDNs and “the implications for the Searcher set.” Koehler concludes he doesn’t “believe that the Internet should be restricted to Latin scripts or to some limited number of character strings. Every language system should have a place at the table. That said, the level of complexity inherent in domain names will make the searching profession ever more challenging. All in all, Koehler thinks we will manage. His key worry is how to key in what are certain to be difficult email addresses.”

See http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbRe...rticleId=36882 for Koehler’s article in Information Today.

source: domainnews.com