The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is paving the way for web addresses using non-Latin characters. The change, which would benefit more than half a billion net users whose languages use non-Latin scripts, coincides with the U.S. easing of control over ICANN, a non-profit entity set up in 1998. For additional information, see The Proposed Final Implementation Plan for the introduction of country-code Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) at the ICANN website and Net set for ‘language shake-up’ at the BBC website.