As we finish out the tech-centric year of 2008, we thought we’d take a look back at the Internet’s oldest commercial Web sites — the ones registered back when chatting about “the Net” was as socially acceptable as wearing Jedi garb into a crowded nightclub. So grab your light sabers, dear friends — we’re boarding the Millennium Falcon and heading back to a virtual galaxy far, far away.
The Internet’s First Dot-Com
Let me set the scene for you: The year was 1985. MS-DOS 3.0 was the PC operating system of choice, most commonly run on the top-selling Tandy 1000 personal computer.
A newly formed company called Dell was getting ready to release its first machine, the “Turbo PC.” The Commodore Amiga 1000 was also about to hit the market.
That same spring, the first dot-com domain was registered with the sale of symbolics.com on March 15, 1985. The site belonged to a computer manufacturer known for its Open Genera Lisp and Macsyma computer algebra systems.
Symbolics declared bankruptcy in the early 90s but is still under operation with new owners. That means symbolics.com is the Internet’s oldest still-functioning dot-com domain — and, I must say, it still looks like it was designed in 1985.
Other Highlights
Some of the other early dot-coms are domains we know well. The ninth recorded registration went to hp.com on March 3, 1986. IBM bought its domain a couple of weeks later. AT&T followed in April, and Apple joined the club after another year. Unfortunately, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine only goes back to the mid-90s, but even in 1997, you can see how relatively low-tech apple.com looked compared to the snazzy standards we enjoy today.
Some other noteworthy notches on the dot-com timeline that didn’t make the first 100: Microsoft bought microsoft.com in May of 1991; PC World entered the online world in April ’92; Yahoo reserved its dot-com home in January of 1995; and Google grabbed google.com in September of 1997.
As a heads-up, one conspicuous omission that may catch your eye: anything remotely pornographic. (Those 2400 BPS modems didn’t make for great image transmission.) Allow me to satisfy your curiosity, though: Sex.com first surfaced in 1994. Porn.com came into existence about a year later.
(Click to the next page for the full list.)
The Full List
All right, prurient interests addressed, ready to check out the full list of dot-com pioneers? Brace yourself, and dig in.
1. symbolics.com: March 15, 1985
2. bbn.com: April 24, 1985
3. think.com: May 24, 1985
4. mcc.com: July 11, 1985
5. dec.com: September 30, 1985
6. northrop.com: November 7, 1985
7. xerox.com: January 9, 1986
8. sri.com: January 17, 1986
9. hp.com: March 3, 1986
10. bellcore.com: March 5, 1986
11. ibm.com: March 19, 1986
12. sun.com: March 19, 1986
13. intel.com: March 25, 1986
14. ti.com: March 25, 1986
15. att.com: April 25, 1986
16. gmr.com: May 8, 1986
17. tek.com: May 8, 1986
18. fmc.com: July 10, 1986
19. ub.com: July 10, 1986
20. bell-atl.com: August 5, 1986
21. ge.com: August 5, 1986
22. grebyn.com: August 5, 1986
23. isc.com: August 5, 1986
24. nsc.com: August 5, 1986
25. stargate.com: August 5, 1986
26. boeing.com: September 2, 1986
27. itcorp.com: September 18, 1986
28. siemens.com: September 29, 1986
29. pyramid.com: October 18, 1986
30. alphacdc.com: October 27, 1986
31. bdm.com: October 27, 1986
32. fluke.com: October 27, 1986
33. inmet.com: October 27, 1986
34. kesmai.com: October 27, 1986
35. mentor.com: October 27, 1986
36. nec.com: October 27, 1986
37. ray.com: October 27, 1986
38. rosemount.com: October 27, 1986
39. vortex.com: October 27, 1986
40. alcoa.com: November 5, 1986
41. gte.com: November 5, 1986
42. adobe.com: November 17, 1986
43. amd.com: November 17, 1986
44. das.com: November 17, 1986
45. data-io.com: November 17, 1986
46. octopus.com: November 17, 1986
47. portal.com: November 17, 1986
48. teltone.com: November 17, 1986
49. 3com.com: December 11, 1986
50. amdahl.com: December 11, 1986
51. ccur.com: December 11, 1986
52. ci.com: December 11, 1986
53. convergent.com: December 11, 1986
54. dg.com: December 11, 1986
55. peregrine.com: December 11, 1986
56. quad.com: December 11, 1986
57. sq.com: December 11, 1986
58. tandy.com: December 11, 1986
59. tti.com: December 11, 1986
60. unisys.com: December 11, 1986
61. cgi.com: January 19, 1987
62. cts.com: January 19, 1987
63. spdcc.com: January 19, 1987
64. apple.com: February 19, 1987
65. nma.com: March 4, 1987
66. prime.com: March 4, 1987
67. philips.com: April 4, 1987
68. datacube.com: April 23, 1987
69. kai.com: April 23, 1987
70. tic.com: April 23, 1987
71. vine.com: April 23, 1987
72. ncr.com: April 30, 1987
73. cisco.com: May 14, 1987
74. rdl.com: May 14, 1987
75. slb.com: May 20, 1987
76. parcplace.com: May 27, 1987
77. utc.com: May 27, 1987
78. ide.com: June 26, 1987
79. trw.com: July 9, 1987
80. unipress.com: July 13, 1987
81. dupont.com: July 27, 1987
82. lockheed.com: July 27, 1987
83. rosetta.com: July 28, 1987
84. toad.com: August 18, 1987
85. quick.com: August 31, 1987
86. allied.com: September 3, 1987
87. dsc.com: September 3, 1987
88. sco.com: September 3, 1987
89. gene.com: September 22, 1987
90. kccs.com: September 22, 1987
91. spectra.com: September 22, 1987
92. wlk.com: September 22, 1987
93. mentat.com: September 30, 1987
94. wyse.com: October 14, 1987
95. cfg.com: November 2, 1987
96. marble.com: November 9, 1987
97. cayman.com: November 16, 1987
98. entity.com: November 16, 1987
99. ksr.com: November 24, 1987
100. nynexst.com: November 30, 1987
(Domain record data provided by iWhoIs.com)