Max Knoblauch did a post entitled “A Brief History of the Domain Name” Starting off with Symbolics.com owned by Aron Meystedt, to 1995 and the end of free domain names. 1998 and the privatization of the DNS and ICANN.
1998: Privatization of the DNS and ICANN
In 1998, the Department of Commerce, under President Clinton’s urging, issued a proposal for privatizing the Domain Naming System (DNS), which was then controlled by the U.S. government. The document — known as the “Green Paper” — was created with the goal to both increase competition in the market and encourage more participation internationally. Public criticism of the proposal led to the creation of the “White Paper,” which addressed many concerns with the original document and led to the formation of ICANN.
The article goes to mention Mike Mann and his registering of 14,962 domains in one day and some other facts and tidbits.
Read the full article here
I am reminded of a former business partner in 1992 telling me about “…this new thing called the internet where everybody has invested billions – but no one has made a cent yet…”.
‘Met up with him a couple years later – and it just went over my head again.
Finally it stuck in the later 90’s – should a could a – but at least I finally got in
I know the feeling Brian, I remember talking to a prospective client in finance in 96, and she told me she had to run, her brother was coming over to teach her the Internet, and I was like yeah, I started doing some reading that’s going to be big, got to get on that. Looking back I should have dropped everything and just focused on that.
the article refers that “In December 2013, WhoAPI, a domain data analysis startup, revealed that every possible combination of four-letter .com domain names had been registered. From AAAA.com to ZZZZ.com”. in my book it was around 2008…