Which company had the first dot-com domain?

Symbolics Computer Company was the first business to register a commercial dot-com domain name back in 1985, according to a retrospective from HP.

Just six companies registered a dot-com domain during 1985, and computer manufacturer Symbolics was the first, having registered for an address in March. Symbolics was sold off in 2008, and the Symbolics.com domain now fittingly hosts interesting facts about internet history.

BBN, an ARPANET contractor, was hot on Symbolics’ heels. The company registered an address in April of that year.

This was followed by Thinking Machines Corporation’s Think.com, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation’s MCC.com, DEC’s DEC.com and Northrop Corporation’s Northrop.com.

XEROX, Stanford University’s SRI International, HP itself and Bell Communications Research all rounded out the 10 dot-com pioneers, registering for their addresses in 1986.

Since these humble beginnings, over 296 million domain names have been registered globally, according to Verisign’s latest report.

“Back in the 1980s, nobody could imagine all of the possibilities of the internet, but a handful of companies had the foresight to get into the game early and register a dot-com domain name, securing their spot in internet history,” HP said.

Image courtesy of husin.sani under CC