Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Domain Names: 25yearsof.com


The internet celebrates a landmark event on the 15 March - the 25th birthday of the day the first dotcom name was registered.

A computer manufacturer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts called Symbolics, Inc. was the first to stake a claim in .com on March 15, 1985. What followed was hardly a gold rush: that year only five other companies signed up a name.

While we know that the first .com was assigned to symbolics.com on March 15, 1985, the genesis of .com is less clear. According to Craig Partridge, chief scientist at Raytheon BBN Technologies, the name for domains evolved as the system was created. At first, .cor was proposed as the domain for corporations, but when the final version came out it was switched to .com. Likewise, .org was originally .pub and .mil was originally .ddn. Other domains that came into being at the same time as .com were .edu, .gov, .net and .arpa.

While Symbolics the company didn't fare well, symbolics.com remains as the oldest .com and was purchased by Aron Meystedt, owner of XF.com in 2009.

Today, .com is an integral part of a technology boom that reshaped the way people work, live, play and connect with family and friends.


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