Keeping up with the latest about the Internet, this one is a biggie. David Passell forwards this article, describing the addition of non-Latin-script web addresses. It's called the biggest change in the way the Internet works since it was created 40 years ago. The first applications for IDNs (Internationalised DomainNames) will be accepted November 16, with the first up and running by "mid-2010." More details follow:
The board of Icann voted at its annual meeting in Seoul to allow domain names in Arabic, Chinese, and other scripts. More than half of the 1.6 billion people who use the Internet speak languages with non-Latin scripts. Plans for the IDNs were first approved in June 2008, with the testing of the system on-going for the last two years.
This article goes on to say that the move paves the way for the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) to be changed so it can recognize and translate non-Latin characters.
Icann was set up by the US government and founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.