These Domain Names Are Probably Older Than You
Well, the statement in the title depends on how old you actually are ;). If you were born in 1985 and after, then yes, some domain names are older than you. However if you were born long before 1985, then you were here when those domain names were registered!
Approximately 60,000 domain names are registered every single day. Can you imagine that? Let’s take a look on the oldest domain names on the Internet and the oldest .Me domain names.
Back In 1985…
Geeks will remember this year for two reasons – time travel was invented and the first domain name ever was registered. It was Nordu.net, registered on January 1, 1985 by Nordic Infrastructure for Research and Education. There were no domains registered until March of that year when Symbolics.com got online. Symbolics.com is the oldest .com domain name on the Internet. It was registered on March 15, 1985. Currently, there is nothing special about it – it’s a parked page with a sign-up form that will let you know when the site goes live.
April 24, 1985 was a busy day for domain names; 5 were registered! BBN.com, CMU.edu (Carnegie-Mellon University), Purdue.edu (Purdue University), Rice.edu (Rice University), Berkeley.edu (University of California, Berkeley) and UCLA.edu (University of California, Los Angeles). The next day, Rutgers University registered their own domain name, Rutgers.edu on April 25, 1985.
A month passed by and another science institution got online; the MIT got its MIT.edu domain name on May 23, while Think.com was registered the next day by Thinking Machines.
It Was the Summer of ’85
During the summer months, the Internet (still a baby back then) got several more domain names: Harvard University got its Harvard.edu domain name on June 27, while Columbia and Cornell got their domains in July.
MCC.com, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation also got their .com domain in July, as well as Mitre Corporation. Only two more domain got registered in 1985; DEC.com on September 30 and Northrop.com on November 7, 1985.
1986
This year had less domain name registrations than the previous one. The IT industry giant Xerox got its Xerox.com domain on January 9, 1986 and several days after, SRI International got their SRI.com domain. On March 3, HP joined the domain party and two days later, Bellcore.com got registered.
SRC.org (Semiconductor Research Corporation) got its domain on March 25. Super.org and NSF.net were the remaining two domains registered in 1986.
What About .ME?
The .ME domain is a little younger. In September 2007, ICAAN delegated the .ME domain to the Government of Montenegro and shortly after, the domain name got approved by IANA. Your .ME was born. It took a little more time to handle the administration of the domain name, but on May 6, 2008 our General Sunrise period began for all eligible trademark holders worldwide.
One of the first .ME domain in this period were iTunes.me, iPod.me, Adobe.me, AirFrance.me, Audi.me and Ferrari.me. They are a perfect example of what a good domain name can do for you and your brand.
This domain memorabilia is great, although it’s too bad that a lot of those sites don’t work any more or the domain name changed the owner. However, it’s a nice reminder of how old Internet and the domain name system actually is.
