Why don't URLs accept apostrophes?

[brawnypandora0]

I'm trying to create a website called www.ican'tfathomthelight.com but my friend says I can't include an apostrophe. Why?

[lovinglinux]

Short answer...because you cannot register a domain name with apostrophes or other special characters, only numbers, letters and hiphens.

I am not a native English speaker, but wouldn't be the same if you use www.icannotfathomthelight.com

[Random_Dude]

Imagine if we stated to use all kinds of special characters on URLs, like: à, á, ã, ô, ü, ç, etc.
Not to mention non-western letters, it would be a big mess, unless everyone had a giant keyboard with all possible characters of the human languages. :p

Cheers :cool:

[lovinglinux]

On a side note, try to keep your domain name as short as possible.

Consider that the longer the domain name, the bigger the chances of typing errors. Not to mention the user could get irritated because he might need to actually type the entire address at some point.

For instance, you could use www.icftl.com. Is not an easy address, but simpler.

I wouldn't use any of those anyway. I have registered some domains in the past that were really cool, but nobody actually understood them when giving the address over the phone.

Make it simple. Use something people can remember easily and type fast.