information 100 Oldest Domain Names & Their Current Status

[Macit]

First ever domain was registered in 1985. Many others were kept being registered since then. But what are the first used domains up to these days?

Almost all of the first registered domains were the ones registered by companies to reach out to potential clients. Registering a personal domain and setting up a personal website was not very popular at that time. Some of the companies that registered these domains were sold, some went out of business, yet some of those domains are still being used by their first registrars. In fact, it is possible to encounter some of those domains on some domain sales platforms.

One of the most interesting aspects of these domains is that some of them have not changed their homepage since day one. You may feel nostalgic on your first visit to these websites.

We have ignored some of the extensions on the list. If we were to count the domains with .edu extensions that were registered for every higher education institution during the inception of the internet, we would end up with a meaningless list of identical entries.

Overall, when we look at the ownership status of the domains, we see that 53 of them still belongs to their first owner. On the other hand, while 24 out of 47 domains have changed hands directly, 23 of them did through the acquisition of the company that owned the domain.*

What is surprising is that 5 out of the 100 hundred domains in the list are on sale as stated on domain sales platforms, as well as their respective homepages. In other words, if you are willing to pay enough money, you may own one or several of the 100 oldest domains of the history of the internet.

Those domains that are not on sale and have no public record of sales history are generally the ones used by old companies for their official websites. We may say that established technology companies like HP, Intel and IBM are among these. Additionally, we notice that some domains have been welcoming their visitors with the same homepage for quite some time and look abandoned.

Read More and See the Full List on Dofo Blog

 

[TERADOMAIN]

Thanks for sharing.

Very interesting and unique info.

 

[WatchDogue]

Enjoyed the post and the link- Thanks!

 

[Dandelion]

Imagine! The first ever registered domain won't even sale at registry price here at NamePros

 

[Furquan]

Outstanding post, thanks @Macit I love your tool.

 

[Jay Ha]

DataCube.com is older than data.com and cube.com

Mind = blown.

Cc @bmugford

 

[Dandelion]

DataCube.com is older than data.com and cube.com

Mind = blown.

Cc @bmugford

Then... no one knew domain will ever become business. People just register according to what they need

 

[Blackhammer]

Thanks for sharing

 

[Macit]

Thanks for your messages.

Don't forget to check the websites from 90s such as itcorp.com, tic.com, alphacdc.com

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Some people are surprised that longer names were 'taken' before shorter available ones in the early days, but remember then there was no domain aftermarket and you could essentially get a name that you had a legitimate claim to (free at first). As such no one was thinking in terms of resales or domain speculation. Does anyone know when the era of domain speculation really took off. Like what year did the legacy big players like Mike Mann and Rick Schwartz begin accumulating big portfolios with the idea of reselling?
Bob

Edit: I did a bit of research to try to answer my own question. It seems from this DNJournal article that Rick Schwartz began in December 1995 with his first purchase of LipService.

This fascinating story of Mike Mann (so many things I did not know!) in the Washington Post doesn't exactly say when he bought his first domain, but the first huge sale was in 1998 when he sold menus(com) for $25,000 ($70 purchase).

 

[Macit]

Some people are surprised that longer names were 'taken' before shorter available ones in the early days, but remember then there was no domain aftermarket and you could essentially get a name that you had a legitimate claim to (free at first). As such no one was thinking in terms of resales or domain speculation. Does anyone know when the era of domain speculation really took off. Like what year did the legacy big players like Mike Mann and Rick Schwartz begin accumulating big portfolios with the idea of reselling?
Bob

Edit: I did a bit of research to try to answer my own question. It seems from this DNJournal article that Rick Schwartz began in December 1995 with his first purchase of LipService.

This fascinating story of Mike Mann (so many things I did not know!) in the Washington Post doesn't exactly say when he bought his first domain, but the first huge sale was in 1998 when he sold menus(com) for $25,000 ($70 purchase).

Good points Bob, thanks