What is the future of Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)? I started mingling with IDN a year ago, and it has been a year passed and that means time for domain renewal. I wonder if my investments will take off. Whether if www.无线.tv will be able to fetch the price that i hoped for.
There are still alot of uncertainties for IDN. Firstly, the real issue of if the public will adopt it. I have confidence that it will be, but the question is to what level . Will chinese surfers make chinese IDN the preferred domain to english ones? will people use, say, www.无线.tv instead of www.wireless.tv?
Secondly is the issue of standard. The IDN standard war for the chinese domaining scene is still uncertain. Some say .com will be, others want .com.cn. The chinese government plays a major role in shaping the fate, maybe even throwing ICANN out of the window. If the chinese sanction the .comcn instead of the supposedly standard .com IDN, then many foreign domainers’ years of investment will be down the drain. Other language version of IDN has its fair share of challenges too.
Thirdly, its domaining beyond HTTP. If I have www.无线.tv, then will I be able to use myname@无线.tv for emailing? And also for domain forwarding and other domain purposes beyond typing it into the browser?
For now, I have decided to take the plunge for the second year. Keeping faith.