SkyDomains

Over the weekend, Frager factor posted a list of the first dot coms ever registered. I have seen this list before but somehow this time I looked at it from a new perspective. What does the end user do when they have infinite choices to pick a domain name?

Going through the list you will notice that human emotions play a vital role in domain choice. Even with large companies. It is often said that ” The sweetest word in the English language is a mans name”. If you want to make friends quickly, learn how to remember peoples names and more importantly pronounce it right.

What am I driving at ?, well going through early registrations, you will notice that most of this companies simply registered there company names, not generics, but their company name! One even registered a hyphenated.

I know this was 1985 and 1986 but I somehow wonder if this has bearing in the reason why we find it difficult to reach the real end users. Maybe they are looking for Noxtel.com when we are try to sell them Tel.com (don’t own any of these names by the way)

Earlier this year iReport sold for 750k. Granted, Rick is a consummate business man but maybe the success of that sale also lies in the fact that CNN was looking for their name, in this case “iReport’” which they have been using on their site prior to the sale.

Registering a bunch of company names is not the answer  because you could easily fall prey to trade mark infringement lawsuit. I am however just throwing this out there, maybe it has merit and maybe not. I was just thinking.

The first 50 .coms

Rank Create date Domain name
1. 15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2. 24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4. 11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5. 30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6. 07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7. 09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8. 17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9. 03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10. 05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
11. 19-Mar-1986 IBM.COM
12. 19-Mar-1986 SUN.COM
13. 25-Mar-1986 INTEL.COM
14. 25-Mar-1986 TI.COM
15. 25-Apr-1986 ATT.COM
16. 08-May-1986 GMR.COM
17. 08-May-1986 TEK.COM
18. 10-Jul-1986 FMC.COM
19. 10-Jul-1986 UB.COM
20. 05-Aug-1986 BELL-ATL.COM
21. 05-Aug-1986 GE.COM
22. 05-Aug-1986 GREBYN.COM
23. 05-Aug-1986 ISC.COM
24. 05-Aug-1986 NSC.COM
25. 05-Aug-1986 STARGATE.COM
26. 02-Sep-1986 BOEING.COM
27. 18-Sep-1986 ITCORP.COM
28. 29-Sep-1986 SIEMENS.COM
29. 18-Oct-1986 PYRAMID.COM
30. 27-Oct-1986 ALPHACDC.COM
31. 27-Oct-1986 BDM.COM
32. 27-Oct-1986 FLUKE.COM
33. 27-Oct-1986 INMET.COM
34. 27-Oct-1986 KESMAI.COM
35. 27-Oct-1986 MENTOR.COM
36. 27-Oct-1986 NEC.COM
37. 27-Oct-1986 RAY.COM
38. 27-Oct-1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM
39. 27-Oct-1986 VORTEX.COM
40. 05-Nov-1986 ALCOA.COM
41. 05-Nov-1986 GTE.COM
42. 17-Nov-1986 ADOBE.COM
43. 17-Nov-1986 AMD.COM
44. 17-Nov-1986 DAS.COM
45. 17-Nov-1986 DATA-IO.COM
46. 17-Nov-1986 OCTOPUS.COM
47. 17-Nov-1986 PORTAL.COM
48. 17-Nov-1986 TELTONE.COM
49. 11-Dec-1986 3COM.COM
50. 11-Dec-1986 AMDAHL.COM