.com: Difference between revisions
It actually stands for "commercial", not "companies" (though .co.uk is from "companies", I think). |
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| 1 || March 15, 1985 || [[Symbolics| |
| 1 || March 15, 1985 || [[Symbolics|swornred.com]] |
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| 2 || April 24, 1985 || [[BBN Technologies|BBN.com]] |
| 2 || April 24, 1985 || [[BBN Technologies|BBN.com]] |
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Revision as of 15:49, 28 March 2011
 | |
| Introduced | 1985 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Generic top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | VeriSign |
| Sponsor | None |
| Intended use | Commercial entities (worldwide) |
| Actual use | Used for virtually any commercial or non-commercial website and is generally accepted as the standard for TLDs |
| Registration restrictions | None |
| Structure | Registrations at second level permitted |
| Documents | RFC 920; RFC 1591; ICANN registry agreement |
| Dispute policies | UDRP |
| Registry website | VeriSign COM NET Registry |
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial,[1] indicating its original intended purpose for networks of general commercial character. Due to its popularity, some have started to refer to it as the "common" domain, especially with the more recent advent of the ".biz" domain.
The gTLD com was originally administered by the United States Department of Defense, but is today operated by VeriSign. Registrations in com are processed via registrars accredited by ICANN. The registry accepts internationalized domain names.
The domain was one of the original top-level domains (TLDs) in the Internet when the Domain Name System was implemented in January 1985, the others being edu, gov, mil, net, org, and arpa. It has grown into the largest top-level domain.[2]
History
The domain COM was installed as one of the first set of top-level domains when the Domain Name System was first implemented for use on the Internet in January 1985. The domain was administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), however the department contracted the domain maintenance to SRI International. SRI created DDN-NIC, also known as SRI-NIC, or simply the NIC (Network Information Center),[3] then accessible online with the domain name nic.ddn.mil. Beginning October 1, 1991, an operations contract was awarded to Government Systems Inc. (GSI), which sub-contracted it to Network Solutions Inc. (NSI).[4]
On January 1, 1993 the National Science Foundation assumed responsibility of maintenance, as com was primarily being used for non-defense interests. The NSF contracted operation to Network Solutions (NSI). In 1995, the NSF authorized NSI to begin charging registrants an annual fee, for the first-time since the domain's inception. Initially the fee was US$50 per year, with US$35 going to NSI, and US$15 going to a government fund. New registrations had to pay for the first two years, making the new-domain registration fee US$100. In 1997 the United States Department of Commerce assumed authority over all generic TLDs. It is currently operated by VeriSign, which had acquired Network Solutions. VeriSign later spun off Network Solutions' non-registry functions into a separate company which continues as a registrar. In the English language the domain is often spelled with a leading period and commonly pronounced as dot-com, and has entered common parlance this way.
Although com domains were originally intended to designate commercial entities[5] (others such as government agencies or educational institutions have different top-level domains assigned to them), there has been no restriction on who can register com domains since the mid-1990s. With the commercialization and popularization of the Internet, the com domain was opened to the public and quickly became the most common top-level domain for websites, email, and networking. Many companies that flourished in the period from 1997 to 2001 (the time known as the "dot-com bubble") incorporated the com suffix into company names; these became known as dot-coms or dot-com companies. The introduction of biz in 2001, which is restricted to businesses, has had no impact on the popularity of com.
Although companies anywhere in the world can register com domains, many countries have a second-level domain with a similar purpose under their own country code top-level domain (ccTLD). Such second-level domains are usually of the form com.xx or co.xx, where xx is the ccTLD. Australia (com.au), Greece (com.gr), Mexico (com.mx), South Korea (co.kr), India (co.in), China (com.cn), Japan (co.jp), Malaysia (com.my) and the United Kingdom (co.uk) are all examples.
Many non-commercial sites and networks use com names to benefit from the perceived recognizability of a com domain. However, the registration statistics[2] show varying popularity over the years.
In 2008, VeriSign reported that approximately 77 million com domains were registered.[2] As of March 2009, VeriSign reported that the domain is served by 886 accredited registrars.[6]
Transfer procedures
Domains can be transferred between registrars. Prior to October 2006, the procedure used by VeriSign was complex and unreliable – requiring a notary public to verify the identity of the registrant requesting a domain transfer. In October 2006, a new procedure, requiring the losing registrar to provide an authorization code on instruction from the registrant (also known as EPP code) was introduced by VeriSign to reduce the incidence of domain hijacking.
List of oldest com domains
The following are the 100 oldest still-existing registered com domains [7][8]:
| Rank | Create date | Domain name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | March 15, 1985 | swornred.com |
| 2 | April 24, 1985 | BBN.com |
| 3 | May 24, 1985 | think.com |
| 4 | July 11, 1985 | MCC.com |
| 5 | September 30, 1985 | DEC.com |
| 6 | November 7, 1985 | northrop.com |
| 7 | January 9, 1986 | xerox.com |
| 8 | January 17, 1986 | SRI.com |
| 9 | March 3, 1986 | HP.com |
| 10 | March 5, 1986 | bellcore.com |
| 11 | March 19, 1986 | IBM.com |
| 11 | March 19, 1986 | sun.com |
| 13 | March 25, 1986 | intel.com |
| 13 | March 25, 1986 | TI.com |
| 15 | April 25, 1986 | ATT.com |
| 16 | May 8, 1986 | GMR.com |
| 16 | May 8, 1986 | tek.com |
| 18 | July 10, 1986 | FMC.com |
| 18 | July 10, 1986 | UB.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | bell-atl.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | GE.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | grebyn.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | ISC.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | NSC.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | stargate.com |
| 26 | September 2, 1986 | boeing.com |
| 27 | September 18, 1986 | ITCorp.com |
| 28 | September 29, 1986 | siemens.com |
| 29 | October 18, 1986 | pyramid.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | alphaDC.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | BDM.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | fluke.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | inmet.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | kesmai.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | mentor.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | NEC.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | ray.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | rosemount.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | vortex.com |
| 40 | November 5, 1986 | alcoa.com |
| 40 | November 5, 1986 | GTE.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | adobe.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | AMD.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | DAS.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | data-IO.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | octopus.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | portal.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | teltone.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | 3Com.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | amdahl.com |
| Rank | Create date | Domain name |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | CCUR.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | CI.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | convergent.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | DG.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | peregrine.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | quad.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | SQ.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | tandy.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | TTI.com |
| 49 | December 11, 1986 | unisys.com |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | CGI.com |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | CTS.com |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | SPDCC.com |
| 64 | February 19, 1987 | apple.com |
| 65 | March 4, 1987 | NMA.com |
| 65 | March 4, 1987 | prime.com |
| 67 | April 4, 1987 | philips.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | datacube.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | KAI.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | TIC.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | vine.com |
| 72 | April 30, 1987 | NCR.com |
| 73 | May 14, 1987 | cisco.com |
| 73 | May 14, 1987 | RDL.com |
| 75 | May 20, 1987 | SLB.com |
| 76 | May 27, 1987 | parcplace.com |
| 76 | May 27, 1987 | UTC.com |
| 78 | June 26, 1987 | IDE.com |
| 79 | July 9, 1987 | TRW.com |
| 80 | July 13, 1987 | unipress.com |
| 81 | July 27, 1987 | dupont.com |
| 81 | July 27, 1987 | lockheed.com |
| 83 | July 28, 1987 | rosetta.com |
| 84 | August 18, 1987 | toad.com |
| 85 | August 31, 1987 | quick.com |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | allied.com |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | DSC.com |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | SCO.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | gene.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | KCCS.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | spectra.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | WLK.com |
| 93 | September 30, 1987 | mentat.com |
| 94 | October 14, 1987 | WYSE.com |
| 95 | November 2, 1987 | CFG.com |
| 96 | November 9, 1987 | marble.com |
| 97 | November 16, 1987 | cayman.com |
| 97 | November 16, 1987 | entity.com |
| 99 | November 24, 1987 | KSR.com |
| 100 | November 30, 1987 | NYNEXST.com |
References
- ^
"RFC 920: Domain Requirements". October 1984. p. 2.
COM = Commercial, any commercial related domains meeting the second level requirements.
- ^ a b c "The Domain Industry Brief" (pdf). Verisign. March 2008.
- ^ Dana D. Sitzler (February 1992). "Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure". p. 3. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Richard Schmalgemeier (1991-09-25). "SRI-NIC services moving". Retrieved 2008-11-16.
- ^ Jon Postel (March 1994). "RFC 1591 Domain Name System Structure and Delegation". p. 2. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
- ^ Verisign Inc. (2009-04-13). "Registry Operator's Monthly Report .COM/.NET" (PDF). ICANN.
- ^ iWhois.com | 100 oldest .com domains
- ^ Domains Counter - Domain Timeline since 1985 by VB.com