The registration of a domain can be done with only a few simple clicks in 2025, but it has not always been so. Rewind to March 1985 and the first .com Internet Domain name was registered: Symbolics.com.
What makes this date particularly remarkable is the fact that the World Wide Web did not even exist at that time, and six years would pass until the website reached the scene and changed our world forever.
In a nutshell, the creation of Symbolics.com marked what many would consider as the beginning of the Dot-Comment era; The embryonic phase of a tectonic change in global business, trade and society in general.
So who was behind the record? As the name obviously suggests, it was created by an organization called Symbolics Computer Corporation. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company specialized in the development of LISP machines: early computers of general use that are executed in the processing programming language of the list (LISP).
Registering a domain was not an easy task during this period. The domain name system (DNS) was still in his childhood, and the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) manually prosecuted records.
To ensure domain, it was required that Simolics send a paper application through Fax Machine or Mail to the Institute. From then on, it was a waiting game until it was prosecuted and approved.
Far from the simple click and march experience of your modern web user.
A long way from the first registration of domain names
It would be euphemism to say that the web has traveled a long way in the 40 years after the registration of symbolic. Now it is an always present aspect of our daily lives, defining how we access the information, we buy, communicate with friends and family, and crucial how we work.
We have seen the impact of inactivity time in recent years, and it is safe to say that returning to the pen and paper and full -time fax machines simply is not an option.
From that first record, the number of domains worldwide has constantly increased over the years. At the end of 2024, the number of domains worldwide stood at 364.3 million, according to DNIB figures.
For context, in 2014 the number of domains worldwide stood at around 250 million. This continuous growth in the last decade has not been restricted to business -related domains. Anyone can easily create a fairly reasonable price.
From microbusinesses and blogs to professional wallets and artistic exhibition sites, millions of people around the world have some type of website and associated domain.
Where is the symbolic now?
Today, a quick visit to Symbolics.com will lead to what is essentially a web -based museum. In 2009, the domain was acquired by Aron Meystedt, a starting investor and founder of Napkin.com.
Meystedt has maintained the site since then, offering users a vision of historical events and milestones during the development of the web. It still attracts tens of thousands of curious visitors every year, including myself when investigating this article.
In addition to interesting facts and things available on the site, there is another interesting feature: an domain name score tool with AI.
It is fantastic that, 40 years after its creation, the first domain of the world has risen to the car of AI. However, it is a useful tool and has been used by thousands of people to evaluate the strength and quality of the domain name.
