The Khronicles

 The Bilingual Community Newspaper

'Η Δίγλωσση Τοπική Εφημερίδα Σας

Τα Χρονικά
    ISSUE NO. 44 DECEMBER 2009 WWW.KO-GO.GR    

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The Khronicles

A division of

Ko-Go Επιχειρήσεις

Box 332
Kokkini Hani 71500
Web address: www.ko-go.gr
editor@ko-go.gr
Telephone: 2810-762748
Fax: 2810-762816

Publisher:

Sofia Klidi

Editor:

Lou Duro

Associate Editors:

Tony & Christine Bowes

Web Editor

John McLaren

Contributors/
Columnists:

Renie Spykerman, Petra Karreman, Maria Daskalaki, John McLaren, Bob Bayes, Father Dimitris Mihouthis, Father Leonidas Hatzakis, Vasiliki Alexaki-Hronaki, Michalis Vardakis, Niki Yiamalaki, Dr. Vangelis Athousakis, Nikolaos Papadakis, Spyros Hatzakis, Jasmine Farsarakis

Translations:

Ada Vamvoukaki

Photographer:

Sami Moudavaris

Layout & Design:

George Drakakis

Printed By:

G Detorakis



ON THE NET

By Wendy M. Grossman
wendyg@pelicancrossing.net


 
Since web providers have announced that they will soon be using Web addresses with non-Latin characters, including Greek, we've been receiving numerous queries as to how this will work, and what does it mean to the average internet user.


The big thing is that for the first time you will start to see Web and email addresses in your own language. In one sense, it won't mean that much to the average Internet user, since most people find sites either by recommendation or by using a search engine – and in either case get to the site by simply clicking on a link.
 

The advent of what are properly called internationalized domain names (or iDNs) matters much more to Greek businesses and marketers, since it means they can have a Web/email address that matches the name they use locally.

All these names are part of the Domain Name System (DNS), invented in 1983 by Paul Mockapetris and Jon Postel, both researchers at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California. The Internet's computers identify each other using numbers of up to 12 digits. But humans find words – like otenet.gr – more memorable, and the DNS translates between the two. Every time you go to a Web site or send an email, your computer asks a DNS server for the matching number.




The limitations of early computers, and the fact that much of the Internet's technology was developed by English speakers, limited the DNS to the Latin 128-bit character set ASCII. Ten years ago, it became possible to register a Greek name under the well-known Latin top-level domains (.gr, .com). The big change now is that the organization responsible for managing the DNS, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.icann.org), is creating top-level domains that also use non-Latin characters. For the first time, it will be possible to register a whole domain name in Greek.

The new system may add a slight security risk, in that underneath iDNs are still strings of ASCII gibberish. The risk of look-alike addresses that lead to fake, malicious Web sites is, however, well-known and should be under control.




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