Do you want to register something like a.com or b.net? You are too late, they were registered during the big bang of the commercial internet. Most of the short domain space is already registered… all of it? Not really. The .com,.net,.org domain space supports Unicode, and most of the Unicode character domain space is still free.
Unicode domains are not very attractive. There are two reasons, on one hand they are not easy to type on the keyboard. Do you know how to type ✈.com in your URL bar?. On the other hand lots of computers don’t have support for Unicode characters, at least not a full set of grihps. The consensus is that Unicode domains are not practical for domains.
However things are changing. New computers and devices speak full Unicode. Nowadays most of the time we don’t type URLs but follow links. As Internet expands to people living on countries using “weird” languages, more and more people will be able to type comfortably Unicode domains. Most of the Unicode character set for Hindi, Thai, Lao, Tibetan, and Arabic languages is still free.
I registered a Unicode domain as experiment. I’m the proud owner of ௫.net. ௫ means ’5′ in the Tamil alphabet. I always loved ௫ because it looks like a reversed at symbol (‘@’). I used this domain for two months for a personal installation of a URL shortener. I used this domain to share links on twitter and facebook. You can test it, this article is shortened as http://௫.net/j. The results of the experiment? The domain is inconvenient to use. Many twitter clients fail to display or recognize the links. It is different. It’s a piece of art.
Unicode domains don’t have any commercial interest. Yet. Maybe they will never have it. Meanwhile you can register those domains for fun, to inflate your ego, or as investment. For the price of two cups of coffee per year, you can be the sole owner of a domain like ✈.com, ✆.com, ➀.net or ❤.org
Go to the list of Unicode characters in the Wikipedia and look for your favorite character. At this time most of the Chinese characters are still free!
Street Art with Unicode domains. (Via ♥.tk @ Flickr)
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Hi. I tried to register some unicode characters, but many of them are dissallowed
Where did you register your domains?
I use http://www.moniker.com/
Thx!