Truly Global Domain Names - a long overdue revolution

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers have finally deemed it appropriate for Russian, Chinese, Arabic and other, non ASCII languages to use domain names represented by local language characters. To put it simply, Latin based characters will no longer be essential in making up domain names.

Currently, more than 50 percent of the current total of 1.6 billion Internet users speak languages that aren't Latin-based, according to widely used estimates.

I know that I would have been incredibly disgruntled had it been necessary for me to use Chinese language domain names whilst surfing the web for the years since it’s birth up until now, so I imagine that for these millions of users, this is an incredibly important and long overdue movement.

Tina Dam, ICANN’s Senior Director of Internationalized domain names, heralds the movement as “the biggest technical change to the Internet’s addressing system – the Domain Name System – in many years.”

Having undergone many revisions, the final proposed implementation plan for the Fast Tracking process has been published and is due to commence today ( November 16th ). The Fast Track process has been introduced as a mechanism to introduce a limited number of non-contentious internationalized country-code top level domain names. These sites would include sites such as governmental and territory administration sites.

I look forward to seeing how the implementation plans unfold!!

Anya Gooch
Account Director

what's in a domain name?

Your domain name is the centre of your online presence so it’s important to make sure that when you're thinking about domain names, you take the time in choosing correctly. We’ve come up with a few tips to get you started

1. Keep it short

A short name is going to be memorable and your customers are more likely to remember it so they can easily recommend you to friends and colleagues. Short domain names are also less likely to be misspelt when typed into a browser.

2. What suffix to go for

Try to register all of the main suffixes for your domain name, Bluhalo typically recommends as a minimum .com, .net and .co.uk for UK businesses. New extensions are being released on a regular basis and some of the more recent popular ones are .mobi. and .eu. Try to keep the suffixes relevant to your business and expected coverage areas. As with the name itself your customers are more likely to remember a familiar suffix.

3. Research

Research is key to a successful domain name. You will need to invest some time in investigating your domain name, such as whether its available in the first place. The last thing you want to happen is to have to fit your domain name to your business and get stuck with a poor domain name that bears little relevance to your organisation.

4. Brands and trademarks

However tempting it may be to register a domain which is close to a common brand name, it's really not worth it. These brands are usually trademarked and the trademark will apply to domain names. It can also change how people view your website and business. Do you really want people to think that you lack originality and knock off other organisations products and services?

5. How much to spend?

We’re all aware that domain names can be sold for huge amounts of money. One of the main questions we get asked here at Bluhalo is “How much will it cost me?” Our answer tends to be “What’s your budget?” If your budget is, for example, £2000 you need to ask yourself; do I spend £2000 on the perfect domain name or is it wiser to invest that £2000 in marketing and building a business that is distinct from its competitors?