Czechs refused diacritics in domain names again

The survey also shows that the most frequent disadvantages of using the diacritics in domain names reported spontaneously were complicated access for visitors from abroad and higher risk of typos.

Prague, February 27, 2017 – For the sixth time in a row, the Czech Internet community refused the introduction of diacritics into the .CZ domain system. According to the public opinion survey conducted for the CZ.NIC Association at the end of the last year, the administrator of the .CZ domain registry, 86% of corporate respondents and 55% of ordinary Internet users were against the introduction of IDN (Internationalized Domain Names).

A total of 1,008 organizations and 1,217 respondents from among the users were interviewed, 86% of enterprises and 55% of users being against the introduction of diacritics. The former showed an increase of 5% compared to the last survey in 2014 and the share of the latter has decreased by 13%, which might be connected with the fact that the survey sample welcomes the possibility of using natural language more warmly than in the previous years.

The survey also shows that the most frequent disadvantages of using the diacritics in domain names reported spontaneously were complicated access for visitors from abroad and higher risk of typos. The survey results represent a decisive factor for introduction or rejection of IDN by CZ.NIC.

“The Czech public is consistent in this regard, so the repeated refusal came as no surprise. The results of the surveys have been practically unchanged for 10 years. However, our goal was not only to determine an opinion on IDN, but we were also interested in public opinion on our key projects. We are pleased that the public appreciates our awareness-raising activities and communications on activities associated with the Internet," says Ondřej Filip, CEO of CZ.NIC.

Detailed survey results including additional information related to IDN can be found at the URL www.háčkyčárky.cz.

About IDN

IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) is a system that enables Internet domain names to contain characters of national alphabets. The basic idea, which led to the creation of IDN, was to simplify communication and use of the Internet for those whose written language contains alphabetic characters not included in the English alphabet. IDN would find its greatest application in countries such as China or Japan. CZ.NIC has been attending to the IDN issue (i.e. the use of diacritical marks in domain names) for a long time. Technically, the Association is ready to introduce IDN right away. However, it will not be launched sooner than the interest among the user community presents the majority.