It's the Web's 29th Anniversary! - A Brief History

DNS A Brief History of the DOMAIN NAME A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control on the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. .com End of 1985 - 6 domain names registered in the world. -.com ---- 2013 - 265 million domain names registered globally (Verisign's Q3 industry brief). It is the web's 29th Anniversary!!! Below are some of the most influential and interesting moments in the history of domain names. 1985 The first .com domain 1985 15 March Symbolics Inc., a computer manufacturer .com in Massachusetts, registered the domain name Symbolics.com, the first appropriately registered .com domain in the world. Symbolics.com remained under the same ownership until 25 years later, in 2009, when it was purchased for an undisclosed sum by XF.com Investments. As it stands today, Symbolics.com is a hybrid of an online museum and advertising space. symbolce 1995 Domain name registration is no longer free Before 1995, anyone who wanted a domain name could register it free of charge. That all changed when the National Science Foundation awarded tech consulting company Network Solutions the ability to charge for registration. Domain prices began at $100 for a two-year registration. Privatization of the 1998 1998 DNS DNS and ICANN The Department of Commerce issued a proposal for privatizing the Domain Naming System (DNS), which was then controlled by the U.S. government. The document, known as the "Green Paper," was created with the goal to both increase competition in the market and encourage more participation internationally. Public criticism of the proposal led to the creation of the "White Paper," which addressed many concerns with the original document and led to the formation of ICANN. .com (2003 Truth in Domain Names Act Incorporated into the PROTECT Act of 2003, this piece of legislation set a punishment for the creators of deceptive domain names, which lure users to a pornographic website without their consent. Early offenders included "Bobthebiulder.com" and "Teltubbies.com," both of which led visitors to a pornographic site called "Hanky Panky College." Most expensive 2007 domain sale The most expensive domain ever sold was VacationRentals.com, which was scooped up for the price of $35 million. Its buyer, Ben Sharples, purchased the site primarily to keep it out of the hands of its competitor, Expedia. 2012 Mann registers 14,962 domains in 24 hours- April 2012 - Mike Mann, a domain speculator registered nearly 15,000 domain names in a span of 24 hours. In explanation of his actions, he said, simply, "I'm just really greedy. I want to own the world." I'm just really greedy. 24 (2013 Internet runs out of four-letter .com-domains December 2013 - WhoAPI, a domain data analysis startup, revealed that every possible combination of four-letter .com domain names had been registered. From AAAA.com to zzzz.com, all 456,976 combinations have been exhausted. The A+AZ three-character .com domains have been used up since 1997. 2014 .cars hyundai news .movic apple .MUic More than 100 new generic top-level domains added Generic top-level domains (9LTDS) are recognizable to the casual web user as the text coming at the end of a URL. Recently, more than 100 new 9LTDS were added, increasing the possibilities for new websites exponentially. Some of the new possibilities include generic words such as .cars and .music, as well as company names such as .apple and .hyundai. Sources: Designed by: Mashable Info Graphic Wikipedia