Domain names have been around almost as long as the Internet itself. We are all very familiar with them, typing them at the end of a website name in our browsers. But do we ever think about the purpose of them, or perhaps why and when they were started? In this snippet of web design history, we will look at the origin of domain names, particularly the dot-com domain name.
The history of the Internet as we know it begins, roughly, in the mid-1980s. That is the very same for domain names as the very first domain name implementation was in 1985 by the US Department of Defense. The purpose was to catalog websites and make them easier to translate into IP addresses. Why is this so important? So websites can “communicate” and connect with one another. In other words, it’s what makes the World Wide Web a “web.”
Web Design History: The Original DNS
The dot-com domain name was one of the very first domain names ever used. First used on March 15, 1985, by a company called Symbolics, Inc. But what does dot-com mean? You may have been taught in school that “com” is short for “computer,” but it is actually short for “commercial,” as in, commercial use for companies and organizations.
Over time, the dot-com name became more of a general and casual web domain, as more and more websites picked it up. From 1985 to the mid-1990s, over a thousand dot-coms were purchased, ultimately taking down any restrictions on who can own one. Around 1997, a time referred to as the “dot-com bubble,” companies who owned dot-com’s became known as “dot-com companies,” and business for them had taken off.
The uses of dot-com
The dot-com web domain is used all over the planet, although there are variations. For example, the United Kingdom uses co.uk and Mexico uses com.mx. These different variations all fall under the same category of dot-com and are used for the same purposes: general or commercial.
Because domain names have expanded to all kinds of different names (dot-net, dot-org, dot-info, dot etc.), there is a question of how useful the dot-com domain name really is. People look at dot-com as a sign of authority, but admittedly, it’s mainly for show. Websites don’t necessarily rank better if they have a dot-com. That’s a misconception. In fact, the Google algorithms look at keywords and things like that which could make a dot-net rank higher than a dot-com.
The Internet is a giant place. Since 2011, more than 100 million dot-com domains have been purchased. It is the most popular web domain by far, and their prices can range anywhere from 99 cents to the most expensive web domain of all time, Insurance.com, $35 million. Throughout web design history, dot-com has become a bit of a legendary title.
Web Design for Your Domain
You can get website domain names through a few different means, but if you want your website to truly sparkle, you must contact the professionals. Mvestor Media can do that for you and your organization.