Web Address Can Use Arabic and Kanji Font

So far, the standard of writing on the internet web addresses using Latin characters only. However, in after the 40 years since the Internet began to be used, starting this year kanji, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Hindi, or Israel is likely to be allowed to be used.

This is one of the major breakthroughs that will be decided ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) this week. ICANN is a non-profit organization that regulates the naming of Internet addresses worldwide. The main issues to be discussed is what the characters should be used in addition to Latin letters.

"This is the biggest technical changes in the history of the Internet since the first time in 40 years ago," said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's chairman. Nevertheless, he admitted that it would require a very complex arrangement.

The decision was expected to be agreed on Friday (30/10). If approved, ICANN will begin to open a new application and will release it for use as public domain from mid-2010.