Popularity of Dot Com Domain Names

There are a number of small and big businesses that are starting their own websites and start dominating the Internet. Not only does getting a website give them more visibility, it also gives them a chance to make their company known worldwide. One of the more popular website names are domains with .com extensions.

.Com is one of the first extension names that are made available for public registration. It’s actually an abbreviation of the word “commercial”. It is a generic top level domain name (gTLD) that is used dominantly in the Internet’s domain name system.

.Com registration started in the year 1985. Since then it has grown to be the largest and most popular TLD in the world. Unknown to a lot of people, .Com registration was originally managed by the United States Department of Defense. The DoD contracted its maintenance to SRI International, which administered it as DDN-NIC, alternatively known as SRI-NIC or simply "the NIC" (Network Information Center). On October 1991, .com registration was contracted to Government Systems Inc, who sub-contracted it to Network Solutions Inc .

On January 1, 1993 the National Science Foundation assumed responsibility for its maintenance, as “dot-com” was mainly being used for non-defense interests. The NSF contracted its repair and maintenance to Network Solutions . In 1995, the NSF certified NSI to begin charging registrants of “dot-org” and “dot-net” as well as “dot-com” an annual fee, for the first-time since its inception. At first, it was $50 per year, with $35 going to NSI, and $15 going to a government fund. Fresh registrations had to pay for the first two years, making the new-domain registration fee $100. Moreover, in 1997 the United States Department of Commerce assumed authority over it, along with the rest of the generic top level domains. It is presently operated by VeriSign, which had acquired Network Solutions . (VeriSign later spun off Network Solutions' non-registry functions into the existing company which continues as a registrar). In the English language, it is frequently pronounced as a word, dot-com, and has entered common jargon this way.

Although .com domains were officially proposed to designate commercial entities (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 “dot-com” domains since the mid-1990s. The opening of the “dot-com” registry to the public overlapped with the commercialization and popularization of the Internet, and “dot-com” quickly became the most common top-level domain for websites. Furthermore, many companies which flourished in 1997-2001 (the time known as the "dot-com bubble") went so far as to incorporate .com onto the company name; these became known as dot-com or dot-com companies. The introduction of .biz in 2001, which is limited to businesses, has had little impact on the popularity of “dot-com.”

Even if companies anywhere in the world can register “dot-com” domains, many countries have a second-level domain with an analogous purpose under their own country code top-level domain (ccTLD). Such second-level domains are usually of the form “dot-com-dot-xx” or “dot-com-dot-xx,” where xx is the ccTLD.

Many non-commercial sites, such as those of non-profit organizations or governments (including the Moroccan Consulate in Bordeaux), use “dot-com” addresses. Several consider this to be contrary to the domain's original purpose and might say that a “dot-org”, “dot-gov”, or other more specific TLD might be more appropriate for such sites. Nevertheless, many organizations prefer the recognizability of a .com domain to a less known one. As well, the original goals of many of the top level domains are often considered irrelevant without restrictions on registrations.

Running your company’s web site doesn’t really require a dot-com domain and it almost does not matter what business you are in. However, for marketing purposes,  the .com domain is almost a necessity, since most people are so much used to all domain names ending in dot-com. Domain names in a .com zone are a must if you are running an E-commerce web site.