With the exception of the information emoji (ℹ), the trademark emoji (™️) and the "m" emoji (Ⓜ️),[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 "❤" when converted back to Unicode.
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]
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[12] or by checking the
WHOIS data of the punycoded domain.
History
At least four emoji domains were created on April 19, 2001:
☻.com (xn--84h.com),[13] ♨️.com (xn--j6h.com), ♨️.net (xn--j6h.net), and ☮️.com (xn--v4h.com).[14] In 2005, ♌️.com (xn--q5h.com) was registered.[15]
On 9 September 2003,
https://I♥You.com (xn--iyou-5u3b.com),
https://I♥.com (xn--i-n3p.com), I❤️You.com and over a thousand other emoji domains were registered by Menno de Ruiter for the first emoji project on the internet in conjunction with the two principal programmers for the Punycode/IDN project at VeriSign and Galcomm ICANN registrar in Israel. [16]
Cabel Sasser of
Panic created 💩.la (xn--ls8h.la), "The World's First Emoji Domain", on April 13, 2011.[17] In February 2015,
Coca-Cola used a domain name containing a smiley emoji in an advertising campaign aimed at mobile users in Puerto Rico.[18] A 2018 survey of the
.ws TLD recorded approximately 25,000 registered emoji domains.[19]
On June 26, 2020, an online collective called It Is What It Is employed the 👁️👄👁️.fm (xn--mp8hai.fm) emoji domain to raise money for various social justice causes.[20] 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.[21][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,[22]Forbes,[21]Business Insider,[23]The Verge,[24] and Gizmodo,[25] among other publications.[26]
It has been speculated that emoji domains, especially on mobile devices, may be used to lure victims into
phishing scams.[28]
Another problem is that emojis can look different depending on the operating system, applications, and fonts used.[29] 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.[30]
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.[31]
At present, only Punycode encoding is advised in e-mail addresses,[32] e.g. "mail@xn--n28h.tld", as many MTAs and MUAs don't support
SMTPUTF8[33] which would allow SMTP commands with non-ASCII characters.
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 👍.example.org (xn--yp8h.example.org) are possible. This allows a wide scope of emoji domains outside of ccTLDs.[citation needed]
^"Emoji domains and SEO". Medium. Domain Research Group. 15 September 2017.
Archived from the original on 25 September 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2017.