http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/17699847001?isVid=1&publisherID=17191968001I remember going to a restaurant in Japan on my way home from a business trip earlier in my career. Our hosts had split off a few hours prior, leaving me and my colleagues with just a bit of time to kill. We found a small restaurant and were utterly unable to order lunch. Our only solution was to point to what others were eating until we finally remembered there were pictures of food outside the restaurant. We took our kind and accommodating waiter out onto the street to order by pointing at photos, smiling and nodding.

That’s what the Internet must be like for some people around the world since only Latin-based names are used in domain addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — or Icann — voted to change that Friday during its annual meeting in Seoul.

“The decision, reached after years of testing and debate, clears the way for Icann to begin accepting applications for non-Latin domain names Nov. 16. People will start seeing them in use around mid 2010, particularly in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts in which demand for the new “internationalized” domain name system has been among the strongest, Icann officials say.” –The New York Times

As with any change, there are those who fear it. Some say that the new confusing addresses (to us) will open opportunities for fraud; others believe an expanded Internet will become even more overloaded and cluttered. The undeniable truth, however, is that billions of people use funny little characters different from our funny little characters to communicate. This change was a long time coming and is probably long overdue.

It’s also true that those of us with international clients better think about this change. Expecting the rest of the world to adapt to our choice of language structure for navigating the Internet will soon be a thing of the past.