As Internet communication throughout the world, and thus the domain world, gets stronger, the development of IDNs, an acronym for Internationalized Domain Names, with their use of non-ASCII (Latin) characters, have become a forerunner in domain expression. By employing local characters with various Top-Level Domains, people throughout the world are now able to access their local language when searching through their browser.

The Afilias Registry has already gathered an extensive list of localized character sets. With the newly announced addition of Spanish characters to the list, the .INFO extension is receiving quite the cultural face-lift.

.INFO was the internet’s second unrestricted top-level domain, following its big brother, the .COM. The unrestricted and ICANN approved top-level domain, has gained favor with informative websites and originally helped to ease the overpopulated .com. Beginning on January 19th, the Afilias Registry will be offering 13 Spanish characters in association with .INFO. This is an exciting collaboration of the popular top-level domain, Spanish characters will help to ignite a deeper communication across the internet.

Although the most widely used language on the internet continues to be English, more than half of internet users worldwide are non-English speakers. With internet access stretching across the globe, cultures and languages are merging together via the internet platform. The new developments arising with internationalized domain names are helping to address the specific needs of non-English speakers.