ICANN says about half the Internet users around the world don't use a Latin-based script as their native language, adding the change will affect billions of potential users.

VOA: standard.2009.11.16

And we have states in this country where farmers, the hardest working people in this country, can't make their mortgage payments because of things that happened half a world away they didn't have any direct influence on at all.

CNN: Transcript: Clinton On Anniversary Of March On Washington

The written word, however, only emerged about 5, 000 years ago, and until World War II over half the world's population couldn't read or write.

CNN: Social media make us more honest

More than half of the world's population doesn't use the Web, particularly in developing nations, researchers say.

WSJ: Google to Fund, Develop Wireless Networks in Emerging Markets