ERR News – A grassroots nonprofit representing internet users has criticized the announ-cement of a public tender for a solution to allow diacritic marks such as umlauts and tildes in domain names.
The group, the Estonian Internet Community, says that the move would only cause confusion and force users to pay more.
Unlike the case of some languages where accent marks indicate emphasis, all of the Estonian diacritics are used in distinct letters of the alphabet. Currently a y substitutes for u with an umlaut on the web address line, for instance. The Community says that a company such as byrookaubad.ee could feel forced to pay for another domain (18.20 euros) to register bürookaubad.ee
Many browsers also lack support for the diacritic marks, the group noted.
The tender was announced on January 25 by the Estonian Internet Foundation, which is in charge of domain names in the country.
According to the Internet Community there are also a number of discrepancies with legislation on procurements, such as the fact that it calls for tenders within 14 days, not 52 days.
