The domain com is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Created in the first group of Internet domains at the beginning of 1985, its name is derived from the word commercial,[1] indicating its original intended purpose for subdomains registered by commercial organizations. Later, the domain opened for general purposes.

com
.com
IntroducedJanuary 1, 1985; 39 years ago (1985-01-01)
RegistryVerisign
SponsorNone
Intended useCommercial entities
Actual useUsed for general purposes and is widely regarded as the standard for TLDs
Registration restrictionsNone
StructureRegistrations are conducted at second level.
DocumentsRFC 920; RFC 1591; ICANN registry agreement
Dispute policiesUDRP
DNSSECYes
IDNYes
Registry websiteVerisign.com Registry

The domain was originally administered by the United States Department of Defense, but is today operated by Verisign, and remains under ultimate jurisdiction of U.S. law.[2][3][4] The .com domain is also more commonly used than the more specific .us by American businesses and enterprises.[5] Verisign registrations in the .com domain are processed via registrars accredited by ICANN. The registry accepts internationalized domain names.

The domain was one of the original TLDs of the Internet when the Domain Name System was implemented in January 1985, the others being edu, gov, mil, net, org, and int.[6] It has grown into the largest top-level domain,[7] and has lent its name to the dot-com bubble, the era of the late 1990s during which excessive speculation in Internet-related concepts and companies led to rapid growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. By 2001 it led to a stock market bubble and crash of company valuations and stock pricing.

History edit

The domain com was one of the first set of top-level domains when the Domain Name System was first implemented for the Internet on January 1, 1985.[8] The domain was administered by the U.S. Department of Defense, but 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),[9] 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).[10]

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 (equivalent to $96 in 2022) 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 these first seven 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 that 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 initially intended to designate commercial entities,[11] the domain has had no restrictions for eligible registrants since the mid-1990s. With the commercialization and popularization of the Internet, the 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 label com into company names; these became known as dot-coms or dot-com companies. The introduction of domain biz in 2001, which was aimed at companies that failed to register a suitable com-domain name, intended to make customers realize that they had arrived at a legitimate business website, although it did not achieve widespread use.[12]

Although companies anywhere in the world can register com domains, many countries have a second-level domain with a similar purpose under their country code top-level domain (ccTLD), such as Australia (com.au), China (com.cn), Greece (com.gr), Israel (co.il), India (co.in), Indonesia (co.id), Japan (co.jp), Mexico (com.mx), Nepal (.com.np), South Korea (co.kr), Sri Lanka (com.lk), United Kingdom (co.uk), and Vietnam (.com.vn).

Many non-commercial sites and networks use com names to benefit from the perceived recognizability of a com domain. However, the registration statistics show varying popularity over the years.[7]

In December 2011, Verisign reported that approximately 100 million com domains were registered.[13] According to the Domain Name Industry Brief published in March 2020, which publishes every quarter, com domain registration totaled 145.4[14] million. As of March 2009, Verisign reported that 926 accredited registrars serve the domain.[13]

On November 29, 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved the renewal of the com Registry Agreement between Verisign, Inc., and ICANN. Through this agreement, Verisign managed the com registry until November 30, 2018.[15]

List of oldest second-level domains edit

The following are the 100 oldest still-existing registered com domains.[16]

Rank Creation date Domain name
1 March 15, 1985 symbolics.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 Creation 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

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Postel, J.; Reynolds, J.K. (October 1984). RFC 920: Domain Requirements. p. 2. doi:10.17487/RFC0920. RFC 920. COM = Commercial, any commercial related domains meeting the second level requirements.
  2. ^ Pott, Trevor; Thomson, Iain (March 1, 2012). "US shuts down Canadian gambling site with Verisign's help". The Register.
  3. ^ "Les ".com" peuvent être saisis par les autorités américaines" (in French). PC World magazine. Archived from the original on February 27, 2013. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  4. ^ Kaelin, Lee (March 1, 2012). "No need for SOPA, VeriSign seizes bodog.com for US authorities". TechSpot.
  5. ^ "The Most Popular Domain Extensions | Top 10 TLDs". Ionos. October 17, 2022. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
  6. ^ "ICANN | Archives | Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)".
  7. ^ a b "Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB)". Verisign. December 31, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  8. ^ ".com Domain Delegation Data". IANA. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
  9. ^ Sitzler, Dana D.; Smith, Patricia G.; Marine, April N. (February 1992). Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure. p. 3. doi:10.17487/RFC1302. FYI 12. RFC 1302.
  10. ^ NIC@NIC.DDN.MIL (September 25, 1991). "SRI-NIC services moving". Newsgroupddn.mgt-bulletin. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011.
  11. ^ Jon Postel (March 1994). RFC 1591 Domain Name System Structure and Delegation. p. 2. doi:10.17487/RFC1591. RFC 1591.
  12. ^ "Introducing .COM, .ORG, .NET, .BIZ, & .COMDomains". November 17, 2020.
  13. ^ a b ".com Monthly Transaction Report". icann.org. December 2011. Archived from the original (CSV) on May 20, 2013.
  14. ^ "Executive Summary" (PDF). The Domain Name Industry Brief. Verisign. 17 (1): 2. March 2020.
  15. ^ "Department of Commerce Approves Verisign-ICANN .com Registry Renewal Agreement". ntia.doc.gov (Press release). November 30, 2012. Archived from the original on December 3, 2012.
  16. ^ "100 oldest .com domains". iWhois.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2012.

External links edit