International Website Address

We noticed that trying to Google "International Website Address", didn't really get any reliable definitions for this Internet Explorer View Menu option. Not even the support web pages in Microsoft.com had anything about International Website Address.

Then we noticed that some search engine hits were getting forum posts where people were concerned that "International Website Address" might be something installed by malicious software!

So we decided to take this small portion of our Web Basics course and post it publicly to clear up any misconceptions and misinformation regarding IE8's View Menu option - International Website Address.

From Web-Professor.com's "Web Basics" course -

Unless you're in the habit of browsing foreign websites, don't expect to see this option enabled. And even when you are browsing foreign country websites, this will only become enabled when the URL cannot be properly displayed in your native character set (alphabet).

At that time,your "Information Bar" will appear, directly beneath your tabs, with a message saying "This web address contains letters or symbols that cannot be displayed with the current language settings. Click here for options.."

International Domain Names

IDNs (International Domain Names) are URLs (web addresses) that are displayed in non-ASCII character sets in your IE Address bar. IDNs allow websites to display their web addresses using their native language and character sets.

Because it is possible for some language symbols and characters to be used to impersonate English language websites for phishing scams, IE will use a standard ASCII text encoding by default, to display an IDN web address.

You can install additional languages in IE, if you frequently visit websites written in foreign languages that are unviewable with your current character sets. Among the options shown when you click "Click here for options" (as shown in the above image), is the choice to install additional languages.

Web Basics Course

The term "International Website Address" may never be very important to you, but this does illustrate that there can be very basic information, as simple as a menu option on Internet Explorer, that you are unaware of.

It is my belief that most web professionals do not have a good grasp on the fundamentals of what it takes to build a successful website for their clients, and the dismal performance in terms of profit and bringing new customers to businesses, tends to support my thinking.

If web professionals don't understand these fundamentals, where do you think website owners would fall on the "web basics knowledge scale"?

You can find out where YOU stand, right now.  Our FREE Web Basics quiz takes just thirty minutes and will give you a pretty fair idea of how deep your knowledge of the most basic website fundamentals goes.

There aren't any really tough questions like what does the "International Website Address" View menu option do?  Just basic questions on fundamental issues that the success of your website(s) depends on you knowing.

Registration for this free quiz does require an email address, but we will never sell or in any way share your email address with third-parties.  If you're still nervous about giving out your email address, why not create a temporary generic account with yahoo, gmail or hotmail?

We hope you'll strive to improve your knowledge and keep honing your skills so that your website will be effective and help you accomplish your organization's goals.  We look forward to becoming your partner in this learning process.

- Hank Castello, CompuSolver.com & Web-Professor.com