10 Questions. 10 Answers. 10 minutes of your life to get started with IDN domains. Let’s go:

1. Which languages are supported in IDNs? Short answer: pretty much all the world’s common written languages. Slightly longer answer: all the languages written in scripts contained in the version of Unicode supported by current version IDNA protocol. I think the shorter answer was clearer, let’s stick to that
2. I hear talk about IDN “scripts”, IDN “languages”, IDN “countries”, its quite confusing, what’s the deal? Well, when talking about languages, the world is a very complicated place. Some languages are shared between countries, some countries have several official languages, some languages used mixed scripts etc. I could go on, but it would only get more confusing …. so just keep in mind 99.9% of words written in the top 50 world languages can now be represented in domain names and you will be ok.
3. Why do IDN domains have strange “xn--” ASCII domains associated with them? The decision was sensibly made back in 2003 by ICANN to keep the DNS ASCII-based. So all IDN domains are actually sent “over the DNS wires” as ASCII (a-z,0-9,”-”) domains. This ensures the stability of the DNS.
   So since IDN domains are obviously written in scripts using non-ASCII characters, how can they possibly exist? The answer is a protocol called IDNA (”Internationalized Domain Names in Applications”). IDNA is a protocol that defines a way of “encoding” Unicode characters into the small number of characters used in ASCII domain names. So IDN-aware applications (browsers, email clients, other web apps and programs) can therefore detect IDN domains and display them in their native language. So that is what “xn--” domains are. They are the ASCII-encoded version of the IDN domain name. Phew.
4. What is the “punycode” version of an IDN domain? It is the ASCII-encoded version of the IDN domain name. So if someone says “punycode” think “xn--”.
5. Why do IDN domains still show up sometimes as “xn--” in applications, doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose? There are two major reasons why (some) applications show (some) IDN domains as “xn--”:
   1. Applications that were launched prior to IDNA existing simply do not “know” that “xn--” domains are encodings of IDN domains and just treat them as normal ASCII domains. There are many such unaware applications in common usage today, Internet Explorer 6 for example, which is still the browser of “choice” for 10% to 20% of people worldwide. So if you are still using IE6, don’t expect to see IDN domains in your address bar! And please upgrade …..
   2. Some browser manufacturers (notably Mozilla) have strict “domain security policies” in order to help prevent phishing attacks. So the Firefox browsers defaults to showing .com and .net IDN domains in “xn--” format rather than Unicode. Expect this bizarre and discriminatory browser behaviour to end soon….
6. I don’t see “domains in other languages”, I just see stuff like ���.com or □□□.com …. what I am doing wrong? You are probably using Windows …. no seriously, Windows doesn’t install many fonts as default. Which in this day and age, is a crime. All versions of Windows should have all major world scripts installed as default. Rant over. You need to install more languages and then ���.com or □□□.com will magically transform into beautiful examples of domain names!
7. Can IDN domains be monetized through parking? PPC rates vary according to country and sector. But yes, IDN domains can be monetized the same as ASCII domains. Ultimately, though, development is the way to go.
8. Is there a resale market for IDN domain names? Yes, and there has been since 2000. There has been lots of $XX,XXX sales, some in public but most in private. We expect the first public 7-figure IDN sale to happen in 2010 or 2011.
9. What are the most popular IDN languages and countries? Glad you asked. We have a list here.
10. Will IDN.IDN domains be automatically allocated to the IDN.com holder and if so, when? Yes they will, and we expect that to happen in 2010. We will post all relevant IDN news as it happens.

If you have questions not covered by this primer, please contact me and I will do my best to help you out.