Guest Andrew Posted September 21, 2003 at 08:58 AM Report Share Posted September 21, 2003 at 08:58 AM Now unicode and others have introduced Chinese character domain names, I would be interested to know if Chinese people will likely take it up. Are Chinese web surfers resigned to using english input ie, shanghai.com etc or have they been waiting impatiently to be able to input in characters? Is it annoying if you have a chinese company to have to buy an english domain name, and an "englished" email address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted September 21, 2003 at 05:21 PM Report Share Posted September 21, 2003 at 05:21 PM While it's logical for Chinese companies to have a Chinese domain name and Chinese e-mail addresses, it may not be the best choice if the company wishes to expand oversea. Unfortunate but true, if a company has a Chinese domain name, it would probably be only used within China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan (since it's unicode), and maybe South Korea. The company would be pretty much limited to the East Asia market. However, I suppose the company could get both a Chinese domain and an English, or rather Pinyin, domain so they could make their Chinese, or maybe other Asian clients feel "closer" while also being able to reach clients outside of East Asia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niubi Posted September 30, 2003 at 04:17 PM Report Share Posted September 30, 2003 at 04:17 PM i bought a chinese character domain a few years ago, but like tback hen the chinese characted domains still have not been resolved. who knows when you will actually be able to use them. its been a few years now that they've introduced them (the ability to register them), but still are useless. i just let mine expire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazu Posted October 1, 2003 at 10:00 PM Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 at 10:00 PM well... I better use the pinyin version of Chinese domain rather than a real Chinese domain,,, it'll be strange, and I can't even go to my website if I use an Eng system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 1, 2003 at 10:50 PM Report Share Posted October 1, 2003 at 10:50 PM well... I better use the pinyin version of Chinese domain rather than a real Chinese domain,,, it'll be strange, and I can't even go to my website if I use an Eng system. How will it be strange? All modern operating systems (Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, Linux... etc.) either have Chinese input methods (and many other languages) built-in and/or available via a quick download. Besides, globalization is the trend now and I seriously doubt the world would be going backwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithsgj Posted October 2, 2003 at 04:13 AM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 04:13 AM There was an attempt in taiwan at .gongsi.taiwan endings (can't type chinese right now, despite being in taiwan with a chinese windows pc! -- keyboard entry software broken...). It didn't catch on at all. All the government website names are not only in roman, but actually in English (so dept of transport is .dot.gov.tw not eg .jtb.zf.tw Even most roman-writing-system governments use .gov (except France), and most country codes are abbreviations of English: .cn not .zh, .fi not some abbreviation of Suomi. It'll never work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 2, 2003 at 04:22 AM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 04:22 AM It'll never work. Never is a long time. Also, I believe the main reason for why Taiwan uses English abbreviation instead of Chinese is because Taiwan doesn't have a standard Chinese Romanization system like Hanyu Pinyin. Taiwan generally uses a non-standard version of Chinese Romanization and instead of confusing the heck out of everyone, Taiwan just uses English translation. China on the other hand, has many websites in Pinyin or Chinese abbreviations since Hanyu Pinyin is widely known and used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithsgj Posted October 2, 2003 at 05:11 AM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 05:11 AM Fair point. All the street signs and bus destination indicators in Taipei City are now in HanyuPinyin; but the general mix of tongyong pinyin, gwoyeu romatzh (sp?), wade-giles, yale and various Confucius-style custom-built systems, elsewhere, is indeed confusing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 2, 2003 at 05:14 AM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 05:14 AM Fair point. All the street signs and bus destination indicators in Taipei City are now in HanyuPinyin Having the street signs in Hanyu Pinyin only benefit foreigners who learned Chinese or mainland Chinese. Hanyu Pinyin isn't taught in the schools and until it does, we won't see many, if any, Taiwan-based websites in Pinyin or with Chinese abbreviations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazu Posted October 2, 2003 at 04:03 PM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 04:03 PM well... I better use the pinyin version of Chinese domain rather than a real Chinese domain' date=',, it'll be strange, and I can't even go to my website if I use an Eng system.[/quote']How will it be strange? All modern operating systems (Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, Linux... etc.) either have Chinese input methods (and many other languages) built-in and/or available via a quick download. Besides, globalization is the trend now and I seriously doubt the world would be going backwards. It's not a must. You HAVE to install (or choose to install) the input method. It's never really built in. And imagine you're an American and know nothing about Chinese, then I can say for quite sure that you'll never figure out how to input Chinese in your computer, then suddenly one day your Chinese friend gives you a name card with a Chinese email address or website address, and in order to contact him you have to install the input method??? Oh my god, I'm Chinese too, but I never want a Chinese email address/URL, I prefer to use the pinyin version instead. Like nihao.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 2, 2003 at 08:26 PM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 08:26 PM It's not a must. You HAVE to install (or choose to install) the input method. It's never really built in. I don't know about Linux but it sure is built-in with Mac OS X. Generally you can install the Chinese IME by default when you install Windows XP. Also, with broadband, you can d/l it in seconds if your computer doesn't have it. And imagine you're an American and know nothing about Chinese, then I can say for quite sure that you'll never figure out how to input Chinese in your computer, then suddenly one day your Chinese friend gives you a name card with a Chinese email address or website address, and in order to contact him you have to install the input method??? That's why I mentioned companies who choose to *ONLY* have a non-English URL (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) will be limiting themselves to the East Asian market. However, it would be wise to have both an English URL (for otuside of East Asia) and another one in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean (or all three) so the local market will feel more "comfortable". Keep in mind, I never said that non-English URLs will *REPLACE* English ones anytime soon. Oh my god, I'm Chinese too, but I never want a Chinese email address/URL, I prefer to use the pinyin version instead. Like nihao.com. That's just you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niubi Posted October 2, 2003 at 08:35 PM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 08:35 PM how many chinese charactersets are there? that makes things certainly more complicated and confusing, not to mention a bit ridiculous. someone who types a chinese character domain in gb2312 will come up with a different website than one typing big5, hz, gb18030, etc. etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 2, 2003 at 08:57 PM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 08:57 PM how many chinese charactersets are there? that makes things certainly more complicated and confusing, not to mention a bit ridiculous. someone who types a chinese character domain in gb2312 will come up with a different website than one typing big5, hz, gb18030, etc. etc. It's Unicode Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niubi Posted October 2, 2003 at 09:32 PM Report Share Posted October 2, 2003 at 09:32 PM here's an interesting quote from network solutions: "Internationalized domain names are being offered as part of a trial period or "testbed." Resolution of internationalized domain names has not yet occurred, and, although anticipated at a later stage of the testbed, cannot be guaranteed. Future changes in internationalized domain name technology standards may invalidate some of the names registered during the testbed." they also say that internationalized domain names only work in Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher and at present do not work with any other browser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithsgj Posted October 3, 2003 at 02:43 AM Report Share Posted October 3, 2003 at 02:43 AM English vs pinyin in China, Kulong, further evidence: Chinese govt websites use English, too, don't they? And one thing I'm certain of is that the English word "public" occurs, apparently quite gratuitously, in I think the provincial URL names. Personally I find it regrettable that English has turned out to be a sort of default language in many domains (of human activity, I mean). But I think the roman alphabet has a place as a default writing system. Next thing someone will be suggesting that it should be possible to write Java and C++ source code in Chinese characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 3, 2003 at 08:36 PM Report Share Posted October 3, 2003 at 08:36 PM English vs pinyin in China, Kulong, further evidence: Chinese govt websites use English, too, don't they? I don't know, do they? Personally I find it regrettable that English has turned out to be a sort of default language in many domains (of human activity, I mean). But I think the roman alphabet has a place as a default writing system. Next thing someone will be suggesting that it should be possible to write Java and C++ source code in Chinese characters. The reason why Roman alphabet is used as the default writing system for computer language is because computer was invented by American/Europeans. No one suggested to write Java and C++ in Chinese. However, I don't see how having Unicode non-English URLs threatens you. You say that you regret that English turned out to be the default language in many domains, then why suppress activities fighting against this trend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazu Posted October 4, 2003 at 05:24 PM Report Share Posted October 4, 2003 at 05:24 PM Oh my god' date=' I'm Chinese too, but I never want a Chinese email address/URL, I prefer to use the pinyin version instead. Like nihao.com.[/quote']That's just you. that's indeed what I want to say to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wix Posted October 4, 2003 at 05:47 PM Report Share Posted October 4, 2003 at 05:47 PM First can somebody give me an example of what a Chinese url or e-mail address would look like. Does it still have dots? Is the www replaced with the character wang (meaning net)? I agree with Kulong about this. I suppose at the moment it is a coding problem, but once Unicode becomes more universal this problem should disappear. I often think it is strange how Chinese websites use English words in their urls. They don't even use pinyin. How do they expect people to remember the url? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted October 4, 2003 at 05:59 PM Report Share Posted October 4, 2003 at 05:59 PM First can somebody give me an example of what a Chinese url or e-mail address would look like. Does it still have dots? Is the www replaced with the character wang [/i'](meaning net)? As far as I know, it'd look something like this: http://www.(hanzi_here).com/ But of course, I don't believe this is finalized yet, maybe the .com can be replaced with Unicode characters as well. But replacing "www" with wang seems extremely unnecessary. Besides, this new Unicode URL doesn't only apply to Chinese, but also all non-English, or more specifically, non-Roman languages like Japanese, Korean, Arabic?, Hebrew?, Thai? I agree with Kulong about this. I suppose at the moment it is a coding problem, but once Unicode becomes more universal this problem should disappear. I often think it is strange how Chinese websites use English words in their urls. They don't even use pinyin. How do they expect people to remember the url? During my time in mainland China, I was under the impression that most, if not all, of the websites was in Pinyin, or abbreviated Pinyin, rather than English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jekor Posted November 9, 2003 at 06:44 PM Report Share Posted November 9, 2003 at 06:44 PM Next thing someone will be suggesting that it should be possible to write Java and C++ source code in Chinese characters. Many newer programming languages will accept non-ASCII source files—usually UTF-8—and some go as far as allowing unicode identifiers. I see this as a big benefit to programmers who don't speak English. One of the oldest programming languages, APL, used a non-ASCII character set (consisting of mathematical symbols), which made for very concise and readable programs. Assuming that DNS is reworked for Unicode, the possibilities would be endless. I doubt that a .網 TLD or anything similar would come into existence, because there would be the issue of who has responsibility for it. Domains like .网.cn and .網.tw would be much more likely. I don't see why "www" is necessary; I personally use "ttt" (Esperanto for "www") for my web server. I also think that it'd be great to give people the option of having a native-language email address. It's not too hard to set up a romanized email alias for it. An SMTP "X-Roman-Address" header could even by added to outgoing messages in case a recipient can't read the default "From" line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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