Top-Level Arabic Domain Names

Internet domain names (i.e., web site addresses) are still written using English characters regardless of the worldwide spread of the Internet. Currently, domain names do not support other languages for one to locate resources on the Internet. Users in non-English speaking countries, such as the Arabs, are disadvantaged. Multilingual domain names have been the goal and activities of many not-for-profit organizations that supervise and pursue their deployments. Several companies have begun to commercialize their technologies. With respect to the Arabic language, however, current implementations are using proprietary technologies. Therefore, it is important to establish standardized Arabic solutions including selecting the Arabic generic and country code top-level domain names (Arabic gTLD and ccTLD). This paper compares a number of proposed suggestions for Arabic gTLDs and ccTLDs.