Emoji domain - Wikipedia 28-12-17 17'12

Emoji domain
An emoji domain is a domain name with emoji in it, for example www.
! .tld.

Function

For an emoji domain to work, it must be converted into so-called

"Punycode". Punycode is a character encoding method used for
internationalized domain names (IDNs). This representation is used when
registering domains containing special characters. The ASCII
representation starts with the prefix "xn--" and is followed by the emoji-
containing domain name encoded as Punycode, for example "xn--i-7iq".

Each emoji has a unique Punycode representation. For example, "! " in an
IDN is represented as "xn--n28h". There are several generators on the
Internet that allow one to convert emoji to Punycode and back.[1][2]

Availability and registration

The availability of emoji domains is limited. As of August 2017, there are

eight top-level domains for which registration is possible, all of which are
ccTLDs: .ai, .cf, .ga, .gq, .ml, .tk, .to, and .ws.

The registration of an emoji domain can be more difficult than with normal
domain names using only ASCII characters, since it is sometimes not
possible to enter emoji into the online registration forms of domain name
registrars, and instead the Punycode representation must be entered.

History

The first three emoji domains were created on April 19, 2001: ♨ .com (xn--
j6h.com), ♨ .net (xn--j6h.net) and ☮ .com (xn--v4h.com).[3] Cabel Sasser
of Panic created $ .la (xn--ls8h.la), "The World's First Emoji Domain", on

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April 13, 2011.[4] In February 2015, Coca-Cola used a domain name

containing a smiley emoji in an advertising campaign aimed at mobile
users in Puerto Rico.[5]

Problems

Support among domain name registrars for emoji domains is limited.[6]

Another problem is that emojis can look different depending on the

operating system, applications, and fonts used.[7] Not all browsers support
emoji domains. On Google Chrome and Firefox, emoji display as Punycode
in the address bar. In Safari, on the other hand, emoji are visible in the
address bar. Emoji domains also display as such in Google and Bing search
results.[8]

There are also issues with using emoji domains in social media. While they
are well supported on Twitter and LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram
impose serious restrictions. Messaging platforms are a mixed bag.[9]

At present, only Punycode encoding is supported in e-mail domains, as in

"mail@xn-n28h.tld".

Emoji subdomains

Emoji subdomains are like normal subdomains, except that they begin
with emoji. Emoji subdomains are possible with many popular TLDs,
including .com. As with any other emoji domain, emoji subdomains have to
be converted into Punycode and can then be used as regular subdomains.
Thus, domain combinations like % .website.tld (xn--yp8h.website.tld) are
possible. This allows a wide scope of emoji domains outside of ccTLDs.[10]

References

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