Symbol Domains

Make your Internet address Global

INFORMATION

The following information about symbol domain names is presented in a Q & A format.

What is this about?

On November 9, 2000, ICANN and VeriSign® began accepting multilingual characters for domain names and URL addressing.

Before that date, the only characters that were allowed for domain names and URL addressing were limited to lowercase a-z, numbers 0-9 and the hyphen -- totaling only 37 characters.

Please note that all old domain names are composed of only those characters, namely the Basic Latin-1 character set.

After May 20, 2001, VeriSign opened the floodgates for multilingual character sets. These new character sets include most of the known languages of the world -- from Chinese to Cherokee, from Arabic to Hebrew, they're all represented. The intent of ICANN and VeriSign is to allow the rest of the world to use the Internet in their respective languages.

The complete multilingual character database has been assembled and provided by Unicode. The Unicode database is currently composed of over 65,000 characters, and allows the global Internet user to access the Internet no matter what their platform; no matter what their software; no matter what their language.

What does this have to do with my company?

The answer is multi-fold.

While your current company domain name is registered with VeriSign -- it is most likely NOT registered in all other languages. ICANN and VeriSign clearly state that no domain names registered in the English language will be protected from others registering their name in another language. It is the responsibility of each company to protect its name in all other languages.

Your current domain name is only registered in the Latin-1 character-set. Global Internet users not using the Latin-1 character set will NOT be able to directly access your web site;

When you attempt register your company name in other languages, your name may already be taken.

Is there an easier solution?

Yes. Instead of confronting the multilingual problem head-on, such as registering your company name in every language possible, and hoping that everything works out, why not choose a character that is common to all languages?

For example, all Greek letters and Mathematical symbols are common to all languages -- they are not language specific. Likewise, the Dingbat character set, which is included in the Unicode database, is also universal and not specific to any single language.

Please note that the domain names we offer are not language specific, and thus are not subject to the newly presented multilingual problems.

Will we have to change or alter our current domain name?

No, it's a simple matter to stack domain names, such that anyone entering different IP's can arrive at the same web location.

The point is that you can, and should, have several domain names to cover as many different avenues of access as possible -- the most important one being that of providing Global access.

In short, we are offering unique, single character, symbol domain names which are: non-language specific; easily for customers to recognize and remember; and, which can be used to promote a truly global presence on the net.

References:

ICANN-- Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers:

     http://www.icann.com/

VeriSign® Global Registry Services:

      http://www.verisign.com/

The Unicode Consortium is a non-profit organization founded to develop, extend and promote use of the Unicode Standard:

      http://www.unicode.org

Verisign® is a registered trademark of Verisign, Inc.