Then there is the high graphical content of the rich world's web: videos and social networking are unworkable in the snail-slow dial-up offered in most African internet cafés.

"The real world has wrecked their optimization plans," said Matthew Daimler, the founder of SeatGuru, a Web site that helps passengers find the best seats on a particular plane.

If servers or routers aren't set up to recognise the characters in these addresses, the domain names will not be readily accessible from all parts of the world.