In 1994, registering a domain name was still free.
Those were the days of the pre-commercial Internet, when domain names were still viewed as exotic, and very few had the means to access them.
Read MoreIn 1995, the New York Times went online, and Mr. Markoff offered them domain NYT.com – for free. Surprisingly, his offer was turned down initially, opting for NYTimes.com instead...
The next year, in 1995, when The Times finally went online, I dutifully offered the nyt.com domain to the paper. To my surprise, initially The Times turned my offer down. (Do you have any idea what a three-letter domain is worth these days?) I was told that nyt.com would be confused with the internet address of New York Telephone, which still existed at the time.
Read MoreAbout a year later one of the systems people came back to me and asked if I would give nyt.com to the paper, and I did. The deal I struck was that in exchange for the domain I would be able to continue to get mail at [email protected]...
