Although my knowledge of the web stretches back a fair way, to the days of; Netscape browsers, Freeserve and AOL dial up disks and running cables across my parent’s living room to connect to the phone socket – it appears I was very late to the domain registration party.
I first registered measureddesigns.com over 9 years ago, but it was almost 30 years ago that the first domains were registered. Dominated by tech companies, few of the top ten have much of a web presence today, perhaps an indicator of how much the web has changed the tech and computer marketplace.
1# SYMBOLICS.COM – 15-Mar-1985
Symbolics was the “premier producer of special-purpose computer systems for running and developing state-of-the-art object-oriented programs in Lisp”. After the domain was resold in 2009 the site now displays a coming soon page. Below is a screenshot of the website from April 1998.
2# BBN.COM – 24-Apr-1985
Internet Services provider BBN.com is one of the few top domains still being used, although it now offers technological solutions for governments. Below is a screenshot of the website from Dec 1996, loving the Cheetah King.
3# THINK.COM – 24-May-1985
Thinking Machines Corporation “is the leading provider of knowledge discovery software and services”, offering data mining to extract patterns and trends from large databases.
Here’s a screenshot of the website from Feb 1997, unfortunately the static jpg doesn’t capture the spinning Tetris piece logo in its full glory.
4# MCC.COM – 11-Jul-1985
MCC is “an industrial research and development consortium that provides consortial R&D services”. Sorry, I have no idea either. Today the domain is parked, with the usual domain provider spam links.
In Feb 1997 the site used a lot of clipart.
5# DEC.COM – 30-Sep-1985
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), was a vendor of computers and software from the 1960s to 1990s. DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq, which went on to merge with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in May 2002. This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.
6# NORTHROP.COM – 07-Nov-1985
Northrop Grumman Corporation, is “a leading designer, systems integrator and manufacturer of military surveillance and combat aircraft, defense electronics and systems, airspace management systems, information systems, marine systems, precision weapons, space systems, and commercial and military aerostructures.”
The earliest screenshot I could find was for Jan 1999.
7# XEROX.COM – 09-Jan-1986
A big name in the world of printers, scanners and photocopiers, Xerox still plays a key part in office supplies today.
In Dec 1996 Xerox was leading the way with big red click here images.
8# SRI.COM – 17-Jan-1986
SRI “excels at creating, applying and bringing new discoveries to market.” So another technology site then.
Sri’s site from 1996 was a thing of beauty.
9# HP.COM – 03-Mar-1986
The first two character domain name, came from the computer and electronics giant Hewlett-Packard.
10# BELLCORE.COM – 05-Mar-1986
Bellcore creates “innovative business solutions that make information technology work for telecommunications carriers, businesses and governments around the world.”
Unsurprisingly another technology company, although this one had a snazzy hot topic graphic on its 1997 website.
Nos 11-25
11# IBM.COM – 19-Mar-1986
12# SUN.COM – 25-Mar-1986
13# INTEL.COM – 25/03/1986
14# TI.COM – 25-Mar-1986
15# ATT.COM – 25-Apr-1986
16# GMR.COM – 08-May-1986
17# TEK.COM – 08-May-1986
18# FMC.COM – 10-Jul-1986
19# UB.COM – 10-Jul-1986
20# BELL-ATL.COM – 05-Aug-1986
21# GE.COM – 05-Aug-1986
22# GREBYN.COM – 05-Aug-1986
23# ISC.COM – 05-Aug-1986
24# NSC.COM – 05-Aug-1986
25# STARGATE.COM – 05-Aug-1986
And the rest
Apple was comparatively slow off the blocks, registering apple.com in February 1987, the 64th domain to be registered.
So when did you get aboard the domain registration train? Let us know in the comments below.
If you’re a domain novice and need a bit more information on choosing a domain, read our earlier Finding your company domain name.
