UTF-16 is a right choice if you are in asia or outside of the west. UTF-8 is the right choice if you are in america or using the internet. > A better solution

UTF-16 is a right choice if you are in asia or outside of the west. UTF-8 is the right choice if you are in america or using the internet. > A better solution is to allow programmers to specify string encoding and default it to UTF-8. Agreed. UTF-8 is the sensible default for most people.