The average person spends increasingly large proportions of their daily lives online. It seems that wherever a person turns, there is a way to connect online and explore their web sites. People take it for granted that the always on internet will constantly be there. But very few people take the time to consider how the addresses they type into their address bar every day came about. The history of domain names is something people should be cognisant of in some shape or form.
The Symbolics computer systems company in Cambridge, Mass was the first company to register such domains on the internet. This top level signifier was the world's first, and used the . Com suffix. No matter how many came after them - and an awful lot have and still continue to do so - the registering of Symbolics.com can never be replaced as one of the major moments in the internet's history.
After that first groundbreaking move, literally millions have followed in their paths. But in the first few years that followed, the take up was relatively cumbersome by people wanting to stake their claim on this virgin territory. By 1992, some seven years after the founding date of March 15 1985, fewer than 15,000 takers had been found for a web site.
However, in the long run the faith of Symbolics has been proven right. The latest accurate figures - which are now two years out of date - indicate that a staggering 192 million individuals and companies registered a web site with the company responsible for assigning names. Since then that number will easily have surpassed 200 million.
There is a single body tasked with keeping track of all these millions of registrations. They also have a hand in creating new suffixes for the countless new web sites registered daily to use so that the internet does not run out of addresses. They are called ICANN, which is short for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. As their name suggests, they assign names and numbers to sites to ensure no duplication.
Of course, with a singular body dealing with such a large world, there are bound to be teething problems. Most recently of all there has been an impassioned debate between two different groups of people who have a claim of interest in the new . XXX suffix which ICANN were trying to impose online. This would single out more adult content from all others online. It has inspired lots of debate about not only that, but the validity of a single organization controlling everything to do with this internet.
Technically, a domain name is not the same as a URL. The uniform resource locator is the entire web site address, including any pages (for example, 'index.html'). The former is just the website address and the suffix after the dot. However, in common usage the words and terms are used interchangeably without many concerns.
Domain registration has been handled capably throughout history by ICANN, but time will tell whether they remain suitable for the future. The internet is still a nascent technology. It is constantly growing and evolving. Waiting to see what happens is part of the excitement of this innovative world.
The Symbolics computer systems company in Cambridge, Mass was the first company to register such domains on the internet. This top level signifier was the world's first, and used the . Com suffix. No matter how many came after them - and an awful lot have and still continue to do so - the registering of Symbolics.com can never be replaced as one of the major moments in the internet's history.
After that first groundbreaking move, literally millions have followed in their paths. But in the first few years that followed, the take up was relatively cumbersome by people wanting to stake their claim on this virgin territory. By 1992, some seven years after the founding date of March 15 1985, fewer than 15,000 takers had been found for a web site.
However, in the long run the faith of Symbolics has been proven right. The latest accurate figures - which are now two years out of date - indicate that a staggering 192 million individuals and companies registered a web site with the company responsible for assigning names. Since then that number will easily have surpassed 200 million.
There is a single body tasked with keeping track of all these millions of registrations. They also have a hand in creating new suffixes for the countless new web sites registered daily to use so that the internet does not run out of addresses. They are called ICANN, which is short for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. As their name suggests, they assign names and numbers to sites to ensure no duplication.
Of course, with a singular body dealing with such a large world, there are bound to be teething problems. Most recently of all there has been an impassioned debate between two different groups of people who have a claim of interest in the new . XXX suffix which ICANN were trying to impose online. This would single out more adult content from all others online. It has inspired lots of debate about not only that, but the validity of a single organization controlling everything to do with this internet.
Technically, a domain name is not the same as a URL. The uniform resource locator is the entire web site address, including any pages (for example, 'index.html'). The former is just the website address and the suffix after the dot. However, in common usage the words and terms are used interchangeably without many concerns.
Domain registration has been handled capably throughout history by ICANN, but time will tell whether they remain suitable for the future. The internet is still a nascent technology. It is constantly growing and evolving. Waiting to see what happens is part of the excitement of this innovative world.
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Ever thought where your domain names with UK2 originates from? Not just the contract, but the complete history? Read more for an insight into domains history
