One of the very first Top-Level Domains (TLD) established in January 1985, .COM has since become the largest TLD, accounting for just under half of the 174 million domain names currently registered. This TLD means “commercial” to the vast majority of Internet users. Dozens of other TLDs are now available, including .ME, .CA and, more recently, .IN. But no matter how many new extensions may be added, everyone agrees – .COM is still the “Rodeo Drive of the Web.” (CNNMoney.com) Do you have yours?
Register .com Domain Name
.com (commercial) is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used on the Internet’s Domain Name System. It was one of the original top-level domains (TLDs, the other five being .edu, .gov, .mil, .net and .org) established in January 1985, and has grown to be the largest TLD in use. It was originally administered by the United States Department of Defense. The DoD contracted its maintenance to SRI International, which managed it as DDN-NIC (alternatively known as SRI-NIC or simply “the NIC” (Network Information Center)) at the domain nic.ddn.mil. Beginning October 1, 1991 it was contracted to Government Systems Inc. (GSI), which sub-contracted it to Network Solutions Inc. (NSI).
Register .com Domain Name
History
On January 1, 1993 the National Science Foundation assumed responsibility for its maintenance, as .com was primarily being used for non-defense interests. The NSF contracted its maintenance to Network Solutions. In 1995 the NSF authorized NSI to begin charging registrants (of .org and .net as well as .com) an annual fee, for the first-time since its inception. Initially it was US$50 per year, with US$35 going to NSI, and US$15 going to a government fund. New registrations had to pay for the first two years, making the new-domain registration fee US$100. In 1997 the United States Department of Commerce assumed authority over it (along with the rest of the generic top level domains). It is currently operated by VeriSign, which had acquired Network Solutions. (VeriSign later spun off Network Solutions’ non-registry functions into the current company which continues as a registrar.) In the English language it is consistently pronounced as a word, dot-com, and has entered common parlance this way.
VeriSign reported that in mid-2008 around 77 million .com domains were registered.
Although .com domains were officially intended to designate commercial entities (others such as government agencies or educational institutions have different top-level domains assigned to them), there has been no restriction on who can register .com domains since the mid-1990s. The opening of the .com registry to the public coincided with the commercialization and popularization of the Internet, and .com quickly became the most common top-level domain for websites. Many companies which flourished in the period from 1997–2001 (the time known as the “dot-com bubble”) went so far as to incorporate .com into the company name; these became known as dot-coms or dot-com companies. The introduction of .biz in 2001, which is restricted to businesses, has had little impact on the popularity of .com.
Although companies anywhere in the world can register .com domains, many countries have a second-level domain with a similar purpose under their own country code top-level domain (ccTLD). Such second-level domains are usually of the form .com.xx or .co.xx, where xx is the ccTLD. Philippines (.com.ph), Australia (.com.au), Greece (.com.gr), Mexico (.com.mx), Republic of Korea (.co.kr), Jamaica (.com.jm), New Zealand (.co.nz), India (.co.in), Morocco (.co.ma), the People’s Republic of China (.com.cn), Argentina (.com.ar), Pakistan (.com.pk), and the United Kingdom (.co.uk) are all examples.
Many noncommercial sites, such as those of nonprofit organizations or governments (including the Moroccan Consulate in Bordeaux), use .com addresses. Some consider this to be contrary to the domain’s original purpose and might say that a .org, .gov, or other more specific TLD might be more appropriate for such sites. However, many organizations prefer the recognizability of a .com domain to a less familiar one. As well, the original purposes of many of the top level domains are often considered irrelevant without restrictions on registrations.
Registrations are processed via registrars accredited by ICANN; internationalized domain names are also accepted.
Register .com Domain Name
Transfer procedures
Domains can be transferred between registrars. Prior to October 2006, the procedure used by VeriSign was complex and unreliable – requiring a notary public to verify the identity of the registrant requesting a domain transfer. In October 2006, a new procedure, requiring the losing registrar to provide an authorization code on instruction from the registrant (also known as EPP code) was introduced by VeriSign to reduce the incidence of domain hijacking.
List of oldest .com domains
The following are the 100 oldest still-existing registered .com domains:
| Rank | Create date | Domain name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | March 15, 1985 | symbolics.com |
| 2 | April 24, 1985 | BBN.com |
| 3 | May 24, 1985 | think.com |
| 4 | July 11, 1985 | MCC.com |
| 5 | September 30, 1985 | DEC.com |
| 6 | November 7, 1985 | northrop.com |
| 7 | January 9, 1986 | xerox.com |
| 8 | January 17, 1986 | SRI.com |
| 9 | March 3, 1986 | HP.com |
| 10 | March 5, 1986 | bellcore.com |
| 11 | March 19, 1986 | IBM.com |
| 11 | March 19, 1986 | sun.com |
| 13 | March 25, 1986 | intel.com |
| 13 | March 25, 1986 | TI.com |
| 15 | April 25, 1986 | ATT.com |
| 16 | May 8, 1986 | GMR.com |
| 16 | May 8, 1986 | tek.com |
| 18 | July 10, 1986 | FMC.com |
| 18 | July 10, 1986 | UB.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | bell-atl.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | GE.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | grebyn.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | ISC.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | NSC.com |
| 20 | August 5, 1986 | stargate.com |
| 26 | September 2, 1986 | boeing.com |
| 27 | September 18, 1986 | ITCorp.com |
| 28 | September 29, 1986 | siemens.com |
| 29 | October 18, 1986 | pyramid.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | alphaDC.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | BDM.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | fluke.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | inmet.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | kesmai.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | mentor.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | NEC.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | ray.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | rosemount.com |
| 30 | October 27, 1986 | vortex.com |
| 40 | November 5, 1986 | alcoa.com |
| 40 | November 5, 1986 | GTE.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | adobe.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | AMD.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | DAS.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | data-IO.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | octopus.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | portal.com |
| 42 | November 17, 1986 | teltone.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | 3Com.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | amdahl.com |
| Rank | Create date | Domain name |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | CCUR.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | CI.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | convergent.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | DG.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | peregrine.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | quad.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | SQ.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | tandy.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | TTI.com |
| 50 | December 11, 1986 | unisys.com |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | CGI.com |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | CTS.com |
| 61 | January 19, 1987 | SPDCC.com |
| 64 | February 19, 1987 | apple.com |
| 65 | March 4, 1987 | NMA.com |
| 65 | March 4, 1987 | prime.com |
| 67 | April 4, 1987 | philips.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | datacube.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | KAI.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | TIC.com |
| 68 | April 23, 1987 | vine.com |
| 72 | April 30, 1987 | NCR.com |
| 73 | May 14, 1987 | cisco.com |
| 73 | May 14, 1987 | RDL.com |
| 75 | May 20, 1987 | SLB.com |
| 76 | May 27, 1987 | parcplace.com |
| 76 | May 27, 1987 | UTC.com |
| 78 | June 26, 1987 | IDE.com |
| 79 | July 9, 1987 | TRW.com |
| 80 | July 13, 1987 | unipress.com |
| 81 | July 27, 1987 | dupont.com |
| 81 | July 27, 1987 | lockheed.com |
| 83 | July 28, 1987 | rosetta.com |
| 84 | August 18, 1987 | toad.com |
| 85 | August 31, 1987 | quick.com |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | allied.com |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | DSC.com |
| 86 | September 3, 1987 | SCO.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | gene.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | KCCS.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | spectra.com |
| 89 | September 22, 1987 | WLK.com |
| 93 | September 30, 1987 | mentat.com |
| 94 | October 14, 1987 | WYSE.com |
| 95 | November 2, 1987 | CFG.com |
| 96 | November 9, 1987 | marble.com |
| 97 | November 16, 1987 | cayman.com |
| 97 | November 16, 1987 | entity.com |
| 99 | November 24, 1987 | KSR.com |
| 100 | November 30, 1987 | NYNEXST.com |
.com Domain Names are available for registration or transfer from:
A .COM can:
- Give you credibility in the online world. A .COM is essential for anyone looking to maintain an active presence on the Internet.
- Be purchased by anyone. Although initially intended for use by commercial entities, there are no restrictions on who can register a .COM.
If you’re registering a .COM for business purposes…
- You might want to register multiple versions of this name(s) – yourpersonaldomainname.NET, for example. Or common misspellings of your domain name—yorpersonaldomanename.COM. You can have additional domains redirect visitors to your primary .COM site.
- You might also want to register domain names made up of keywords that a shopper might type into a browser when searching for your product. If your company sells file folders, for example, you might register manilafolders.com and filesupplies.com (sorry, both are taken).
- And if you are planning to publish podcasts, you should also purchase a .TV domain name.
| Introduced | 1985 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Generic top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | VeriSign |
| Sponsor | None |
| Intended use | Company entities (worldwide) |
| Actual use | Used for virtually any commercial or non-commercial website and is generally accepted as the standard for TLDs |
| Registration restrictions | None |
| Structure | Registrations at second level permitted |
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BackordersMonitor vital changes to any domain. And secure your chance to backorder that domain at special savings. From $5.99/yr |
Special Bulk PricingIf you are registering or transferring multiple domain names at once you can get special bulk pricing! |
Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)With our Internationalized Domain Names search capabilities, you can register .COM and .NET domain names in over 100 native languages (non-ASCII characters) such as Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. |
