Happy 25th Anniversary Dot Com!

Twenty-five years ago today, on March 15th, 1985, the first .com name ever - Symbolics.com - appeared on the internet. Though domain names started out as just an easier way for consumers to access web sites, it ushered in a golden commercial age of the internet.

In two years, there were 100 registered domain names. In ten, there were 18,000. In 25, the number has grown to over 80 million. This more-than-exponential growth will only continue, especially as new ways to access the web, such as via cell phone become mainstream. These past 25 years have brought both good, such as connecting the world and reorganizing the world wide commerce model; and bad, such as internet fraud and the dot com bubble burst.

So happy silver anniversary dot com! I can’t wait to see what the next 25 years bring.