Arabic URL Goes Live: First Non-Latin Domain Name Cleared By ICANN

Talk about Google Translate gaining a whole new level of importance. The Internet as we know has officially changed today. For well over a decade, every single URL registered through ICANN has used Latin numbers, letters and characters. Even foreign language sites have been forced to use characters found on a typical Western/U.S. keyboard in the URL. But in October of last year, ICANN (the Internet regulator over URL name registrations) decided that the barrier should be torn down, and non-Latin characters should be allowed in URL names.

This week, the world's first domain name using all non-Latin characters went live, and it's an Arabic URL that is getting loads of clicks simply for being "first." According to a BBC report, "Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first countries to have so-called "country codes" written in Arabic scripts." Over 20 nations so far has requested approval for international domains from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), but this particular URL seems to be first to go online: http://????.?????-?????????.???/


We can't tell you what exactly the site is about, but we're sure those who speak the language would be happy to clarify in comments. Sure looks interesting, though!