Sometimes we take for granted our ability to type in domain names in our native language. It's true that the most of civilization accepts English as the way of the Internet, but researchers agree that it doesn't necessarily have to stay like that.
Of course, this means that in the near future, you might be able to type accented letters, Chinese characters and even cave paintings into your web browser.
While the cave paintings might be a bit of a stretch (maybe cuneiform instead), tests are being run to determine whether non-English characters will disrupt the Internet.
If you take into consideration only the massive population explosion in some Asian countries, it's pretty apparent that the web will need the ability to dole out useful addresses. The story claims that the character sets will be finished by 2008. However, this seems like fool's gold, especially considering the understanding of the Chinese language. Most words are combinations of smaller words and character parts. It seems difficult to allow free-standing characters as domain names.
But hey, if Prince can change his name to a symbol, then I suppose anything is possible. It's just a shame that raspberryberet.com has already been taken.
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