Happy 25th Birthday 'Dot Com': a Look Back

The Internet is filled with nostalgia on Monday as geeks all over the world celebrate the 25th anniversary of the registration of the first dot-com domain. On March 15, 1985, a small Massachusetts-based computer manufacturer Symbolics, Inc. registered Symbolics.com. It would be more than a month before the second dot-com was registered, and there wouldn't be 100 registered dot-coms until November 30, 1987.

By Ian Paul
Mon, March 15, 2010

PC World — The Internet is filled with nostalgia on Monday as geeks all over the world celebrate the 25th anniversary of the registration of the first dot-com domain. On March 15, 1985, a small Massachusetts-based computer manufacturer Symbolics, Inc. registered Symbolics.com. It would be more than a month before the second dot-com was registered, and there wouldn't be 100 registered dot-coms until November 30, 1987.

The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

How times have changed. Today, there are 668,000 dot-coms registered every month, according to the BBC. Current top Internet properties include names like Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), Microsoft (MSFT), Facebook and eBay--none (EBAY) of which were registered until the 1990s.

Slideshow: 12 Types of Tech Zealots: How to Spot Them in the Wild
Slideshow: Fighting the Dark Side: Tech's Heroes and Villains

On this historic anniversary of the first ever registered dot-com domain, let's take a trip back and revisit the histories of the first five domains ever registered, plus the story of what is arguably the most notorious dot-com ever.

Want more domain name history? Check out The Internet's Oldest Dot-com Domain Names.

Connect with Ian on Twitter (@ianpaul) or on Google Buzz.

Originally published on www.pcworld.com. Click here to read the original story.

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