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Nowadays, Emoji domain is a topic that is becoming more and more relevant in our society. Over the years, we have seen how Emoji domain has impacted our lives in various ways, from the way we communicate, to the way we carry out our daily activities. There is no doubt that Emoji domain has generated a great impact both individually and collectively, and that is why more and more people are seeking information and knowledge on this topic. In this article, we will thoroughly explore Emoji domain and analyze its influence on different aspects of our life.
An emoji domain is a domain name with one or more emoji in it, for example ๐.tld
.
With the exception of the information emoji (โน), the trademark emoji (โข๏ธ) and the "m" emoji (โ๏ธ),[citation needed] for an emoji to work as a domain name, 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" is "โค" when converted back to Unicode.
Each emoji has a unique Punycode representation. For example, "๐" 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.
As of April 2022, there are 11 top-level domains for which emoji domain registration is possible: .cf, .fm, .ga, .gq, .kz, .ml, .st, .tk, .to, .uz, and .ws; as well as 12 second-level domains: .radio.am, .radio.fm, .co.il, .org.il, .biz.ua, .co.ua, .pp.ua, .co.uz, .com.uz, .com.ws, .net.ws, and .org.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.
The availability of an emoji domain can be verified by using an emoji domain search engine or by checking the WHOIS data of the punycoded domain.
At least four emoji domains were created on April 19, 2001:โป.com (xn--84h.com), โจ๏ธ.com (xn--j6h.com), โจ๏ธ.net (xn--j6h.net), and โฎ๏ธ.com (xn--v4h.com). In 2005, โ๏ธ.com (xn--q5h.com) was registered. Cabel Sasser of Panic created ๐ฉ.la (xn--ls8h.la), "The World's First Emoji Domain", on April 13, 2011. In February 2015, Coca-Cola used a domain name containing a smiley emoji in an advertising campaign aimed at mobile users in Puerto Rico. A 2018 survey of the .ws TLD recorded approximately 25,000 registered emoji domains.
On June 26, 2020, an online collective called It Is What It Is employed the ๐๏ธ๐๐๏ธ.fm (xn--mp8hai.fm) emoji domain to raise money for various social justice causes. The viral campaign, which relied on people's fear of missing out, caused thousands of Twitter users to post both the emoji domain and the phrase "It Is What It Is" in hopes of getting access to a rumored exclusive social network.[unreliable source?] In the end, It Is What It Is turned out to be a hoax designed to redirect attention to social issues; it ultimately raised over $200,000 and was featured in Wired, Forbes, Business Insider, The Verge, and Gizmodo, among other publications.
Support among domain name registrars for emoji domains is limited.
It has been speculated that emoji domains, especially on mobile devices, may be used to lure victims into phishing scams.
Another problem is that emojis can look different depending on the operating system, applications, and fonts used. 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 are also visible in Google and Bing search results.
There are also issues with using emoji domains in social media. While they are well supported on Twitter and LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram have imposed serious restrictions. Support varies on messaging platforms.
At present, only Punycode encoding is advised in e-mail addresses, e.g. "[email protected]", as many MTAs and MUAs don't support SMTPUTF8 which would allow SMTP commands with non-ASCII characters.
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 ๐.example.org (xn--yp8h.example.org) are possible. This allows a wide scope of emoji domains outside of ccTLDs.[citation needed]
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