Internet users with a good command of Chinese but a poor grasp on
English can now visit websites by typing in domain names in Chinese
characters.
The service was introduced by the China Internet Network
Information Center (CNNIC)
yesterday.
"You can type http://domain name (in Chinese characters).cn' and
you can visit your target website," said CNNIC official Zhang
Jianchuan.
He
suggested that Internet users should also install the necessary
software, which leads to quicker and easier access.
For example, if somebody wanted to visit the China Daily
website, they could type "http://chinadaily (in Chinese
characters).cn." A window will appear for them to decide whether
they want install the software or not.
If
the user decides not to install the software, they have to type the
full name each time they want to look at the site. But if they
install the software, the process becomes much easier.
Zhang said millions of Chinese people have long been deprived of
using the Web simply because they had to use English to find native
language sites.
Zhang's center is busily promoting domain name registration
involving the suffix ".cn."
Domain name registration has been increasing steadily in China.
Statistics show that about 80 to 90 percent of China's users have
registered their domain names with the foreign ".com" or ".net"
suffixes.
The number of domain names with the ".cn" suffix had grown from
4,066 in 1997 to around 150,000 by the end May.
(China Daily May 27, 2003)