OK I understand your opinion
I’ll try to just post what is true.
1. IE6 didn’t support IDNs true.
2. IE7 which is being released this month does.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/ (Microsoft’s official IE Blog)
3. FireFox does support IDNs
4. Google does support IDNs
5. Yahoo does support IDNs
6. Opera Does
7. Safari Does
8. MSN does
I’m familiar with NEW.net (Which is worthless I agree) & unfortunately IDNs are not vanity extensions. It’s a global move by ICANN to give people domains in their own language. Plugins won’t be needed. All of these browsers except IE6 have native support for IDN domains.
With the statement about the official jp registry being at $99, that’s like posting dot coms are $75 because you see it at Network Solutions.
There’s plenty of site’s cheaper than that even in English. You can also have dot com IDNs they only cost $7 a pop.
I’ll respect your opinion but do you still say they are “worthless”?
In my years of developing sites I’ve always viewed adult & gambling marketers to be cutting edge. I have a portfolio of the best Japanese generic terms. Most of them (that are parked) are already getting traffic. These are fresh regs after I get them indexed I’ll let you know how well Bingo, & roulette show up in SERPS for the term.