Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Greek web users to have 'Greek' domain names from July 4

The Greek alphabet is to make its way into Greek domain names from July 4, the country's telecommunications authorities EETT reported on Tuesday. The step is intended to increase the use of new technologies in Greece.

At the present time, Greek web sites only use the Latin alphabet for domain names - due to both technical problems and a lack of preparation by the registration countries, says the EETT.

Unfortunately for the Greeks, as with other non-Latin alphabets, the step is something of a compromise as the Greek characters have to be slotted in between the protocol (Http://www) and the country top level domain name (.gr).

The EETT says, "The measure should contribute to strengthening the Greek alphabet and give a new momentum to the use of new technologies". Not everyone in Greece knows the Latin alphabet and the recent Eurostat research, reported earlier in this blog, shows that Greece is behind when compared with 30 European nations.