The Domain Name Association (DNA) asked Apple yesterday to update its Safari Browser to recognize new gTLD domain names.

Writing on behalf of the Association Executive Director Kurt Pritz in a letter sent to Apple, Mr. Pritz wrote:

“”

On behalf of the Domain Name Association (DNA), the trade association that represents the domain name industry and the interest of companies that provision and sell domain names, I write to inform you of our concern that Apple has not more quickly adapted its platform to recognize new Top-Level Domain names (TLDs).

You are no doubt aware of the significant changes occurring in the Internet, or more precisely, the Domain Name System (DNS). As of today, 300 new TLDs have already been delegated into the root zone, including .club, .guru, .nyc, .reviews, and .中文网.

We recently became aware of the fact that new TLDs are not being recognized in Apple’s Safari browser, by Apple ID log in software, and by Apple devices, generally.

One example: typing the http://official.guru into the address bar works but typing “official.guru” does not resolve. (Typing “official.com” works with or without appending “http://”). Obviously, the browser should respond in the same way for both .guru and .com names.

Other web browsers such as Firefox and Chrome, and Internet applications such as Twitter, have adapted their platforms to recognize new TLDs and provide a seamless experience for end users.

To notify Apple immediately, one of our member organizations contacted a number of people that witnessed the problem first hand and filed “bugs” at Apple’s trouble ticket system. The “bug number” is 16420986.

We received a reply that the problem had been previously reported and this ticket had been closed. Other tickets have been filed. The problem has been reported cured but then recurs.

Other instances of non-operability have been reported, see http://dave.harris.uno/inept-apple-support-please-specify-a-valid-email-address/.

While we assume these issues have the attention of Apple’s appropriate technical staff, we wanted to ensure appropriate management attention was focused on this problem as well.

The inability of the Apple browser to recognize new TLDs reduces the ability of emerging businesses to participate and compete in the evolving marketplace. More and more new Top-Level Domains are becoming operational each week and Apple’s failure to recognize and resolve new domain names on its company platforms will soon become widely known.

The universal acceptance of all TLDs is an important goal of our membership and is a topic we are addressing with high priority.

The DNA’s Technical Committee would welcome an opportunity to discuss the operation of TLDs with members of your technical team.

Sincerely,
Kurt Pritz

Executive Director Domain Name Association””

 

We omitted the individuals the letter was sent to.

Also by way of disclaimer I am a Director of RightoftheDot.com which is a member of the DNA.

The letter was reprinted with permission from Mr. Pritz