The domain name com is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the word commercial,^[1] indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations. However eventually the distinction was lost when .com, .org and .net were opened for unrestricted registration.

The gTLD com was originally administered by the United States Department of Defense, but is today operated by Verisign. Registrations in com are processed via registrars accredited by ICANN. The registry accepts internationalized domain names.

The domain was one of the original top-level domains (TLDs) in the Internet when the Domain Name System was implemented in January 1985, the others being edu, gov, mil, net, org, and arpa. It has grown into the largest top-level domain.^[2]

  History

The domain COM was installed as one of the first set of top-level domains when the Domain Name System was first implemented for use on the Internet in January 1985. The domain was administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), however the department contracted the domain maintenance to SRI International. SRI created DDN-NIC, also known as SRI-NIC, or simply the NIC (Network Information Center),^[3] then accessible online with the domain name nic.ddn.mil. Beginning October 1, 1991, an operations contract was awarded to Government Systems Inc. (GSI), which sub-contracted it to Network Solutions Inc. (NSI).^[4]

On January 1, 1993 the National Science Foundation assumed responsibility of maintenance, as com was primarily being used for non-defense interests. The NSF contracted operation to Network Solutions (NSI). In 1995, the NSF authorized NSI to begin charging registrants an annual fee, for the first-time since the domain's inception. Initially the fee 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 all generic TLDs. It is currently operated by VeriSign, which had acquired Network Solutions. VeriSign later spun off Network Solutions' non-registry functions into a separate company which continues as a registrar. In the English language the domain is often spelled with a leading period and commonly pronounced as dot-com, and has entered common parlance this way.

Although com domains were originally intended to designate commercial entities^[5] (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. With the commercialization and popularization of the Internet, the com domain was opened to the public and quickly became the most common top-level domain for websites, email, and networking. Many companies that flourished in the period from 1997 to 2001 (the time known as the "dot-com bubble") incorporated the com suffix into company names; these became known as dot-coms or dot-com companies. The introduction of biz in 2001, which is restricted to businesses, has had no impact on the popularity of com.^{[citation needed]}

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. Australia (com.au), Greece (com.gr), Mexico (com.mx), South Korea (co.kr), India (co.in), Indonesia (co.id), China (com.cn), Japan (co.jp), and the United Kingdom (co.uk) are all examples.

Many non-commercial sites and networks use com names to benefit from the perceived recognizability of a com domain. However, the registration statistics^[2] show varying popularity over the years.^{[citation needed]}

As of December, 2011, VeriSign reported that approximately 100 million com domains were registered. ^[6]As of March 2009, VeriSign reported that the domain is served by 926 accredited registrars. ^[6]

  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:^[7][8]

  References

  External links

• IANA .com whois information
• List of .com accredited registrars
• .com WhoIS