Web alphabet goes global

The World Wide Web is about to change in a very major way. The private organization that oversees basic design of the Internet is allowing web addresses to be expressed in characters other than the Roman alphabet. The change will allow the suffix of the traditional web address that usually says dot-com, dot-net or dot-gov to end with Chinese characters, Arabic ones, Hebrew or dozens of other alphabets.

Believe it or not, it has taken the the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, six years to reach this point.

"The statistics show that over half of the users of the Internet today don't use the Roman alphabet in their first language," Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of Icann, tells the Wall Street Journal. "It's an issue of national pride in some cases and cultural identity."

There is a patchwork system in place in some parts of the world. For instance, in China, websites generally use Roman letters to spell out Chinese words. In some cases, the Chinese use a series of numbers that rhyme with Chinese words, according to the newspaper.

But there is a problem with this plan. What happens if you have a keyboard that only has the Roman alphabet? Are you out of luck or is there a way to adapt to navigate your way to the right address?

For more on the changing web alphabet:
- see this Wall Street Journal article

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