A brief history of the establishment and growth of the system for assigning unique addresses to websites on the Internet, which we now know as the Domain Name System (DNS).
The US Defense Information Systems Agency created the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) in 1972. This authority was responsible for assigning the unique address (string of numbers) for each computer connected to the Internet.
In 1983, the University of Southern California tested its Automated Domain Name System, which used readable names instead of clunky strings of numbers like 657.239.038.6.
1985 was the birth of.com and domain names. These addresses were mostly from the US government, mainly military.
It wasn’t until 1990 that the Internet became commercial, and it was the following year, 1991, that the World Wide Web (WWW) was introduced. The first WWW software was created by Tim Berners-Lee.
The following year, 1992, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded an exclusive contract to Network Solutions Inc., to be the sole registrar of the top level domains (TLDs) names.com, .net , .org The NSF maintained a central database of domain names called WHOIS.
For each new domain name, a fee of $100 was charged. This fee also allowed for a two-year registration period. Each additional year after that was charged at the rate of $50.
The rate of domain name registrations in May 1993 was reported to be 400 per month. In September 1994, Network Solutions Inc. reported that it was registering domain names at the rate of 2,000 per month.
Network Solutions Inc. (NSI), maintained its monopoly on TLD name registrations until 1999. It was in that year that the US Department of Commerce dismantled the NSI monopoly and opened up a competitive market for domain names. .com, .net and .org. .
Sticky pricing, poor service and frustrating delays should now be a thing of the past with the now competitive service up and running. Unfortunately, though, I keep hearing stories of registrants (or scalpers for registrants) charging like wounded buffalo and providing lousy service.
I have called this article 100 million domains.
At the time of this initial writing (first half of 2007), there are not 100 million domains. There are only about 65 million. But when I give you an indication of the incredible growth in domain name registrations, I’m sure you’ll agree that we’ll soon hit the 100 million domain mark.
[This article was updated in January, 2015, and a quick Google search has indicated that the number of registered domain names is now in the vicinity of three hundred million.]
On March 6, 1997, the millionth domain name was registered. On May 4 of the following year, 1998, domain name number two million was registered. It was on November 6 of the same year that the domain name number three million was registered.
March 9, 1999 saw the four millionth and May 29 the five millionth. In April of the following year, 2000, the ten millionth domain name was registered. And now in 2007, around the 65 million mark.
If you graph these statistics, you will see a very steep upward curve. We may reach the goal of 100 million domains by the time you read this article.
Billions of Internet users everywhere can now shop at competitive prices and great service. You are no longer limited to the monopoly of a single private provider. The big ones, the well-known ones, are NOT necessarily the ones that offer the best prices and services. Compare prices, see what different firms offer and at what price.
