Canadians can now register domain names with all characters in their two official languages, French and English, after the .ca registry implemented support of all French characters this month.
Previously, the only characters .ca registrants could use in domain names were the letters a-z, the numbers 0-9 and hyphens. Now it is possible for French .CA domain names to be spelled with the languageâs full range of characters and ligatures: é, ë, ê, è, â, à , æ, ô, Å, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, ÿ.
âThis is great news for all Canadians because it means they can now use the .ca domain in Canadaâs two official languages, French and English,â said Byron Holland, President and CEO of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) said in a statement. âThis is also great news for owners of .ca domains and their website visitors because it means that domain names can precisely match names, businesses and trademarks.â
Implementing French-language characters, or internationalised domain names, is a far more challenging and complex process than it may at first appear to be. For example, the domain préside.ca could have 62 different spelling variations depending on the choice of characters used. CIRA has developed a number of policies and procedures to keep the process as simple and straightforward as possible.
One of the most important developments by CIRA is the creation of a bundling policy that removes the necessity to register every special-character variant of an existing .CA domain. Whoever registers, or has already registered, a specific domain, is automatically granted an exclusive right to register all of its variants, but is under no obligation to do so. For example, only the owner of cira.ca will have the right to register cïra.ca and cîra.ca.
For more information about the rollout of French-language characters for the .ca domain, please visit cira.ca/why-ca/french-ca.