Egypt welcomes international move to allow internet address in non-Latin scripts
Most people use the internet without thinking about how it actually works. They type in a domain name and are taken to the website they want. But for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who don't read and write the Latin script, much of the virtual world is off limits.
That is about to change.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which regulates website address around the world, began accepting domain names in every script last month, from Arabic letters to Chinese characters, an effort experts say will open up the internet to millions more users.
"The internet now speaks Arabic," Minister of Communication and Information Technology Tarek Kamel said last month during a conference in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Egypt is poised to be among the first countries to take advantage of the new system. Kamel said the Egyptian government has already applied for the domain name .misr in Arabic.
"We have to have the same user experience in our languages," says Manal Ismail, Vice Chair of ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee. "We cannot expect people around the globe to master the same language."
Baher Esmat, a regional manager for ICANN, said the change was a long time coming. He expects to see an impact even in countries where English is largely understood. In Egypt alone, which currently has about 16 million web users, Esmat says the change could help 10-20 million people.
The difficulties of introducing the new system lay primarily in the way the internet was first put together. When you type in a website name, your computer is actually looking up an IP address, a unique string of numbers assigned to that site. Because the internet originated in the US, the system that was used to match names and numbers only allowed for the Latin script (along with numerals 0-9 and the hyphen).
In the early days of the internet this was not a problem. Most users were Americans or Europeans whose alphabets were close enough to English that only minor adjustments were necessary. Today 60% of internet users are non-English speakers, according to ICANN.
With the internet markets in the US and Europe nearly saturated and use in the developing world continuing to expand, the proportion of users whose native language is written in a non-Latin script is expected to increase.
Lost in Translation
The changes to domain names are expected to make the web much easier to navigate for people in the Middle East and Asia. Currently, transliteration from Arabic into English causes several problems. For example, there are often multiple correct transliterations of an Arabic name.
So if someone hears about a new site from a friend, "he has more than one way of writing it down [in Latin script]. He cannot just go and reach the website," says Ismail. Also, a company's rival may register a website under an alternate spelling, hoping to take advantage of the ambiguity. Switching to Arabic script in domain names eliminates this ambiguity, protecting both users and copyright holders.
While the most common way to find a new website is probably through search engines, which don't require Latin web addresses, the script, say some, remains a barrier.
"People usually go to Google and search [] but people are starting to realize that language, even in a country like Egypt, could be one of the hurdles [to future internet growth]," says Esmat.
Looking for an Arabic company's website may be time consuming, since a user would either have to guess the English transliteration or search for the name in Arabic, which will not necessarily match the domain name. Although you will usually be able to find the site you are looking for, the new Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) eliminates transliteration issues altogether. And for internet users who have no exposure to English, the improvement in accessibility is even more pronounced.
"[Website names]are all about replacing hard to recall numbers with easy to recall names. This can only be done with native languages," says Ismail.
Esmat says that countries that do not use the Latin script expect to see real benefits from the implementation of IDNs. Using cell phones as an analogy, Esmat says: "We reached 53 million mobile subscribers in Egypt. Without having Arabic support on mobile phones we wouldn't ever have reached that number."
No Slackers
ICANN allocates blocks of internet addresses to five regional internet registries around the world. These address registries are then sub-allocated to domestic internet service providers and other parties, says Rod Beckstrom, CEO of ICANN.
"The Domain Name System (DNS) is handling up to 1 trillion queries and transactions per day. It links together the most complex system mankind has ever developed and that system is, of course, the internet."
Egypt took the first step in setting up a .misr registry when it filed its application last month. Next, ICANN must ensure that the country, like any other organization applying for a registry, will be able to manage it.
The organization must prove that they have the financial backing and technical know-how to get the registry up and running; the last thing ICANN wants to see is a section of the internet becoming inaccessible because the registry isn't up to the task.
ICANN must also decide if the new registry could somehow create confusion among users. For example, an application for a .kom registry would likely be rejected since it is too similar to .com, says Esmat.
The application process is expected to take a few months, but Esmat declined to comment on the likelihood of Egypt's application being approved.
Assuming there are no problems with the application, "it will not have a clear and sudden impact. It will take time until the end user can realize the impact, it will take time to see tens of thousands of names registered in Arabic under .misr," says Esmat.
Ismail agrees and points out the importance of people taking advantage of the new registry, but says the registry will have to be developed if and when it gets the go-ahead from ICANN.
"We still have to work on the local content because IDNs are just the key," he says.
By Michael Ide
© Business Today Egypt 2009
