Registrar Launches Māori Macrons for Domains
Innovative domain registrar iWantMyName has launched a service providing registration of macronised domain names on its
global domain registrar site just in time for Māori language week.
The Wellington based registrar began trading last Christmas and is already making serious inroads into a market which is
worth almost $4 billion annually and continues to grow at around 12%, per annum despite the economic recession.
Chief Marketing Officer for iWantMyName, Timo Reitnauer, said that Indigenous groups around the world were looking at
how best to protect their digital identity as the Internet continued to impact powerfully in both in economic and
sociological terms. Providing macrons for Māori language domains was a small but significant step towards preserving the
expression of Māori language online, said Mr Reitnauer.
Parent company, ideegeo Group Limited, was also providing advice to Karaitiana Taiuru of the Māori Internet Society who
was building a case to create dot indigi (.indigi) a new top level domain for all Indigenous Peoples. “We see the
opportunity to write Māori macron characters in web addresses as a long awaited natural progression”, said Mr Taiuru.
“We are glad that an innovative local venture like iWantMyName is offering this opportunity at such an early stage and
their support for Māori language week is highly admirable. It is also a significant step forward for all Indigenous
Peoples of the world to be able to have their own online identity without character constraints.”
In addition to Māori macronised domain names, iWantMyName had also successfully implemented a wide selection of
Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) with non Latin characters. Mr Reitnauer said that, for example, an individual or
company could now secure a dot com (.com) domain using Chinese, Hindi or Arabic characters. This could be an advantage
to a business looking to set up an online presence in a non-English speaking market.
Website: http://www.iwantmyname.com
ENDS