Tarnishing IDNs: Symbol Domains and Life at the Margins

Buying symbol domains is not wise unless one enjoys obscure hobbies or extremely speculative investments. For those unfamiliar with the market, you actually can own ♥.com  or §.com, which are represented by xn--g6h.com and xn--eba.com, respectively.  Unlike true IDNs which are characters of a foreign language, symbol domains are not intuitive or easy to type in any language or on any keyboard.   To the unknowing, the symbol domainer sullies the reputaion of IDNs, which by extension are thought of as being the obscure collections of marginal tech hobbyists, while in truth most serious IDNers own category-killer domains of a certain country.

Much worse than the delusional symbol registering hobbyist, is the IDN scammer.   For instance the IDN character “α” or alpha has a natural place in many greek domain names.  The scammer will instead register domαinname.com (which is not registered at the time of this post) and he will ask $100k+ for the name, hoping that someone does not notice the greek letter “α” in the midst of the name.

Just as domainers have been unfairly labelled typosquatters, cybersquatters, TM-infringers and worse; don’t leap to conclusions that IDNers are creatures motivated by obscure curiosity or scamming intentions.  Just look at the IDNTools.com IDN sales feed (link)to see what domains the majority of the IDN community is really buying.