Addressing Arabic: The Web Gets More Local Thanks to the Qatar Domains Registry
No doubt you’ve experienced the web’s evolution toward a more social and mobile space. We share and consume content in more ways and across a greater variety of devices than ever before. You may have heard less about localization – another way the web is evolving. This trend is about making the web more targeted and meaningful to local audiences, primarily in terms of language and culture. Arabic and other multilingual content is underrepresented, though there are efforts to increase its presence online. There is more to this emerging ‘local’ web, however.
Efforts at localization, or as some have called it democratization, of the web have seen several recent milestones, including the ability to create (and have browsers recognize) domain names in Chinese and Arabic characters. There is also a movement to increase the registration of websites hosted at country-specific top-level domains (TLDs such as .ca for Canada or .qa for Qatar).
Given these trends we wanted to take a moment to introduce you to the Qatar Domains Registry, an initiative of ictQATAR, the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology. ictQATAR manages the “.qa” and “قطر.” infrastructure and regulatory environment (“قطر.” is the Qatar domain in Arabic). They have licensed a number of registrars to offer domain name services for those registering Qatar-based business and personal sites. The “قطر.” domain will eventually be the new home of thousands of Arabic language sites that promote local content not only on the page, but in the address you type into the browser. While you’re reading this, you can click into the main ictQATAR website via one of the registered Arabic domains here: http://الاعلي-للاتصالات.قطر/
Mohamed El-Bashir, the manager of the Qatar Domains Registry project, talked to us about the services they provide and the goals of the effort:
We’ve become so accustomed to writing web addresses in Latin characters that you may not have given the domain name system a second thought. But as the web grows more social and mobile it also grows more personal and local. Finding local websites with content that matters most to you or having the ability to use your native language to navigate online is part of the web’s evolution, and one that reduces a potential barrier to participation. For millions of people, the expansion of the internet’s domain name address system to include Arabic and Chinese characters is part of the response to making content more open and accessible to all. For the Qatar Domains Registry, ensuring a vibrant mix of Arabic content and increasing the number of .qa and قطر. addresses, is part of showing Qatar’s leadership online.
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Mike is one of the few people on the planet with fond memories of LAX. Growing up in Los Angeles, he would go to the airport whenever he could to see planes land and take off, along the way...
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