Did you know that the dotcom domain celebrated a milestone birthday last week? March 15, 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of the day the very first dotcom domain name was registered.
It was 1985, and one company – Symbolics computers – registered the very first domain with a dotcom address (symbolics.com). You were probably oblivious to this achievement as it was not a popular topic at the time. In fact, only 5 other companies took advantage of registering dotcoms that very year, showing just how slow the dotcom revolution was to catch on in the beginning.
Twelve years passed before the one millionth dotcom was registered, but now is a completely different story. Today, over 60% of that 12 year achievement is completed in just one month!
Can you remember life before the growth of the dotcom domain?
Advertising, shopping, connecting with friends and businesses; dotcoms have become so popular in our everyday life that most people perform these actions via one daily. It seems that the majority of people jump directly on the Internet when needing to research a product, and many simply resort to typing in the company name plus a dotcom at the end to find a website. Most advertisements for products and services in papers, magazines, radio and television will end by making a call to a domain name. Today, choosing a catchy domain name is pretty much just as important as choosing the business name itself.
The interesting part of this whole process is the claim that it wouldn’t have been made possible without the institution of the first popular web browser. This was the point where the Internet moved from basic government and education use to a more commercialised focus.
In honour of dotcom’s big birthday, let’s celebrate by taking a trip down memory lane.
1. In what year did you register your first dotcom domain name?
2. Do you still maintain that website today?
3. How has dotcom as an institution impacted your life?
And, if you don’t already own a dotcom domain, you can change that by registering your very own through Digital Pacific. For more details, be sure to review the Domain Registration page.
