IDN domains now read in their own alphabet
Internationalized domain names used to appear on this site the way
registrars store them: as punycode. A page titled xn--b1afoeo.net tells a
person nothing — the name is actually колев.net — and it tells search
engines just as little.
As of today, every IDN in the catalogue is presented in its real alphabet:
- Pages and cards show the Unicode name — колев.net, not
xn--b1afoeo.net. The punycode spelling is still shown beside the name, because it is what the registrar and the escrow transaction will display. - URLs are Unicode too. The canonical address of a page is now the
percent-encoded Unicode name — your browser shows
namegarage.com/domain/колев.netin the address bar. The old punycode URL keeps working and permanently redirects to the new one, so existing links and bookmarks don't break. - Search understands both. Typing either колев or xn--b1afoeo into the catalogue search finds the name, and the sitemap and structured data now carry the Unicode form.
Checkout is unchanged: offers, purchases, and escrow still transact the ASCII (punycode) form of the name, which is the spelling every registrar recognizes.