The top-level domain (TLD) “xn—mgbab2bd” is an internationalized country code top-level domain (IDN ccTLD). This specific TLD belongs to the Arab-speaking world, corresponding to the term “.بازار”, which means “bazaar” in Arabic. To present this in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) format – a character encoding standard used to represent text in computers and other devices that use text – it appears as “xn—mgbab2bd.”
Internationalized domain names (IDNs) such as “xn—mgbab2bd” use certain ASCII strings to represent non-ASCII characters. The system, known as Punycode, allows for the representation of Unicode strings in ASCII format. This is particularly important for languages that do not use Latin script, facilitating increased internet usability and accessibility (source: ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
Managed by CORE Association, “xn—mgbab2bd” is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) launched officially on October 15, 2014. With this Arabic script gTLD, Arabic-speaking internet users have a domain that caters to their first language, further promoting linguistic diversity and encouraging a more inclusive internet. A significant portion of the world speaks Arabic, and the importance of having websites with Arabic URL addresses cannot be overstretched (source: IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).
An excellent example of domains using this TLD is “bazaar.xn—mgbab2bd” – translating to “bazaar.bazaar” in English. This TLD also hosts various other domains, representing a wide array of Arabic websites whenever one visits a “.بازار” domain. Having a site that ends with “.بازار” shows that the content of the site is likely to be in Arabic and specifically targeted at an arabic-speaking audience (source: WHOIS).
In conclusion, TLDs like “xn—mgbab2bd” promote an increasingly multilingual internet and ensure that more users worldwide can navigate the web in their native scripts and languages. This inclusivity encourages the sharing of information, ideas, and values beyond language barriers. The continuous development of IDNs opens the internet to millions more users worldwide who may be restricted by the use of non-Latin or non-ASCII characters in their script.
Sources used:
1. ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
2. IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
3. WHOIS
4. CORE Association
