Life

http://משוגעת.com?

By Dan Friedman October 26, 2009

Ever since Al Gore invented the Internet, Web business has been transacted in the language that was “good enough for Jesus”. Even when the content of the pages has been written in foreign-speak, the url, the addresss of the page has been reassuringly English. That’s all about to change.

Bowing to the democracy that is over 1 billion Chinese-speakers and countless billions of Arabic-speaking dollars ICANN, the body that regulates email addresses, will finally consider the proposal on Friday at its six-day 36th International Public Meeting in Seoul — as Lance Whitney points out on CNET.

I thought we were at war. We can’t have people writing in their own languages while we’re at war. Who knows what sort of secret things they’ll be saying? Where’s the Department of Homeland Security?

Hat tip to Lloyd Trufelman.

Dan Friedman is the former executive editor and whisky correspondent of the Forward, and is the author of a book about Tears for Fears, the ’80s emo rock band.

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