Non-Latin hassle in your URLs starting for 2010
Starting from 2010, domain names will be able to contain non-Latin characters, such a HOBЫЙyЧеНЫЙ.pф. Real joy to type.I'll make it short first if you don't have time to read everything:
That initiative is... probably not a good one.Yesterday, alone in my little room, I caught myself thinking of how it would be shall we come in contact with an evolved specie not using oral or written communication. Of course this specie would be transient and every unit would act as the whole... if you read science fiction you've probably read things like that before...The point is, the more I thought about it and the more I thought that the language barrier is one of the most serious hindrances when it comes to communication. That specie would be baffled by the difficulties we have to overcome in order to deliver a clear message.
How can you even go as far as "Please explain me" when you don't even know how to say or write it?
Today, when someone can fluently speak more than one language, this person is considered gifted. Being one of those lucky speakers, I can assure you that one more language in your pocket can give you an infinity of new possibilities.The interwebz is a place where knowledge (at least information... at least noise) is supposed to be global, or at least tends to be so. The standards on which it's built are one of the leading factors, but the predominance of only a couple of languages worldwide (not only for the web) is another. But finding non-Latin content is still tricky.Now let say I want to look for the lyrics of a Russian song I really like. Russian doesn't have yet a standardized transliteration, as far as I know, and making a search with Latin alphabet will get pretty hard, considering that I've seen 'good' transliterated as 'horoshe' 'harasho' 'harosho' and so on and so forth. I've done it before and I usually have to try and fail several time, waiting for a Cyrillic version to come up the search results, copy and paste in the search field and find my way in. Of course my Russian is far from fluent, and it takes me ages to get what I want.This is just a small example, and well, when doing so I'm really getting what I'm asking for.
But what about real knowledge/technical sharing? Have you ever operated a Mandarin or Russian version of Windows? Do you know how much of a pain it is? Do you really want to extend this pain to the web?I don't. I don't want to have to remember a Cyrillic url, or worse, a traditional Chinese one, I can't even type it!If you're short on URLs, all the domain names being virtually all taken or parked, well, extend the domain types.
I would rather have to deal with danny-fr.perso.fr or tsugoidane.portal.jp than großebusiness.de
(and I had to open a FAQ to type the ß, I'm typing from a mac and don't have my dear charmap)Follow me on Twitter
- Languages are a major barrier in communication
- You shouldn't fragment the web more than it already is
- Non-Latin characters are a pain in the neck to type
- If there is a shortage of URLs, why not adding domain types like .portal, .cloud, .blog ?
That initiative is... probably not a good one.Yesterday, alone in my little room, I caught myself thinking of how it would be shall we come in contact with an evolved specie not using oral or written communication. Of course this specie would be transient and every unit would act as the whole... if you read science fiction you've probably read things like that before...The point is, the more I thought about it and the more I thought that the language barrier is one of the most serious hindrances when it comes to communication. That specie would be baffled by the difficulties we have to overcome in order to deliver a clear message.
How can you even go as far as "Please explain me" when you don't even know how to say or write it?
Today, when someone can fluently speak more than one language, this person is considered gifted. Being one of those lucky speakers, I can assure you that one more language in your pocket can give you an infinity of new possibilities.The interwebz is a place where knowledge (at least information... at least noise) is supposed to be global, or at least tends to be so. The standards on which it's built are one of the leading factors, but the predominance of only a couple of languages worldwide (not only for the web) is another. But finding non-Latin content is still tricky.Now let say I want to look for the lyrics of a Russian song I really like. Russian doesn't have yet a standardized transliteration, as far as I know, and making a search with Latin alphabet will get pretty hard, considering that I've seen 'good' transliterated as 'horoshe' 'harasho' 'harosho' and so on and so forth. I've done it before and I usually have to try and fail several time, waiting for a Cyrillic version to come up the search results, copy and paste in the search field and find my way in. Of course my Russian is far from fluent, and it takes me ages to get what I want.This is just a small example, and well, when doing so I'm really getting what I'm asking for.
But what about real knowledge/technical sharing? Have you ever operated a Mandarin or Russian version of Windows? Do you know how much of a pain it is? Do you really want to extend this pain to the web?I don't. I don't want to have to remember a Cyrillic url, or worse, a traditional Chinese one, I can't even type it!If you're short on URLs, all the domain names being virtually all taken or parked, well, extend the domain types.
I would rather have to deal with danny-fr.perso.fr or tsugoidane.portal.jp than großebusiness.de
(and I had to open a FAQ to type the ß, I'm typing from a mac and don't have my dear charmap)Follow me on Twitter
