What is the difference between utf8_general_ci and utf8_unicode_ci in MySql?

Question

Are there any big differences a developer should care about?

Answer 1

Depends if you're offering token unicode support, or trying to do things 'right'.

According to the MySQL documentation, the two collations differ in equality for foreign characters. The example in the docs shows that ß is equivalent to "ss" in one colation, and "s" in another.

I'd expect the 'right' choice is to behave as your users expect. If you don't know what your users expect, go with the one that you think gives the best results.