Different Languages Provide Greater Web Variety

By KAREN KAPLAN

Oct. 2, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Sometimes it seems as if all the good Web site names are taken. But that’s only if you’re looking for names using the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet (A-Z) and the 10 Arabic digits (0-9).

Two companies that register Internet domain names are looking to expand their markets by offering names in Asian characters. Last week, Pasadena-based DotTV said it would start registering names ending in its “.tv” suffix with Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters. In two weeks, Herndon, Va.-based Network Solutions will begin offering the same service for URLs ending in .com, .net and .org.

Customers who have keyboards or PC software that can type Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters can sign up for domain names in those languages.

Network Solutions will also let users type in names in English and ask the computer to translate them.

Technology and the Internet Business

Karen Kaplan

Karen Kaplan covers science and medical research for the Los Angeles Times. She has been a member of the science team since 2005, including 13 years as an editor. Her first decade at The Times was spent covering technology in the Business section as both a reporter and editor. She grew up in San Diego and is a graduate of MIT and Columbia University.

Different Languages Provide Greater Web Variety

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