The IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Program was approved October 2009 in order to allow the inclusion of characters other than the traditional ASCII characters used in Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs). The implementation of IDN top-level domains has been in the works for several years, seven in the ICANN community alone. ICANN, the organization which oversees the Internet’s name space calls the implementation of IDN TLDs the biggest change to the underlying structure on the Internet since its inception.

IDNs at the second level (names on the left side of the (.) have been available for some time, but were always problematic because users would often need to switch keyboard settings to type out the final “.com” or “.co.jp.” IDNs at the second level are one step closer to creating a better user experience for non-English speaking users, however, those whose native language is written right to left (ex. Hebrew or Arabic) have found the system very cumbersome.

IDN ccTLDs will make the Internet much more user friendly for the wider Internet population and will make the Internet home to many more users by allowing them to more easily identify localized online content, and of course, allowing people to better connect and communicate using local services, truly “making the Internet equally accessible to everyone. “

The IDN program, which will include close to 100,000 characters, will help ICANN reach its goal of “One world, one Internet, everyone connected.”

Click play on the video below to see a short promotional video on IDN ccTLDs.

The first IDN Fast Track approvals, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Russia took place at the ICANN Meeting of the Board back on April 22nd, and now a total of 12 applications have been approved (7 strings already appear in the root zone).

The table below shows the status of applications which have been publicly released. (ICANN only makes public applications which have passed String Evaluation.)

Current Status of IDN ccTLD Fast Track Applications

• IDN ccTLD Fast Track: New Strings in Line for Delegation
• IDN ccTLD Update – March 2010
• First IDN ccTLDs Pass String Evaluation
• IDN ccTLDs to Launch in 2010
• State of the Domain Name Industry – Ready for New gTLDs