People gobsmacked to learn what .com stands for after 39 years
The domain .com was created in the first group of internet domains on January 1, 1985, but many internet users have no idea what the TLD actually stands for
It was introduced in the mid-1980s, but the origin of the .com domain still remains a mystery to many internet users. The first group of internet domains, created on January 1, 1985, included it alongside edu, gov, mil, net, org, and int.
While .com was originally intended to be used by companies online, the domain extended itself for generic purposes and is now the most frequently used domain name extension. Reddit users recently queried the domain's prominence.
A user wrote: "Explain like I'm five: What's the significance of having .com in the address bar? Also, does it mean anything different if say we used .edu.org. or .io as I've seen popping up? " Ionos Digital Guide states that .com is short for 'commercial. ' Their website mentions: "Everyone is familiar with .com, but many Internet users don't know what the domain stands for."
The RFC 920 document from October 1984 designated .com as 'commercial'.
'I died for 7 minutes – what I saw on the 'other side' brought me peace' [REVEALED]
Woman's 65p tip to stop weeds growing between paving slabs [READ NEXT]
'I took revenge on my neighbours who keep using my driveway - it made it worse' [LATEST]
Yet, Jack Haverty of early internet days has suggested that .com might have initially stood for 'company'. Back in the 80s and 90s, the internet 'was not chartered to interconnect businesses,' claims Haverty, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) employee.
'Commercial' remains the primary association after 35 years.
One user offered their insight on the Reddit thread, explaining: "Every one of these extensions is called a domain, and is a way to help categorise things in the Internet and help you know what kind of site you are on, and who runs it. '.com' helps you understand that whatever website you are on is run by some company or business, which makes money, so think of the 'com' as a company."
"'.edu' is abbreviated from education, and is a way of knowing a website is based on some collegiate or higher education institution.. 'org' refers to an organisation, more times than not a non-profit one. Now, a domain like 'io' is just a trendy domain, with no real purpose technically (.com could have easily been used.) you'll usually see .io in startups and indie games.)".
Another chimed in with: "Well it used to be that in the US, there was pretty much only .gov (government websites), .net (networks, or just general purpose websites), .org (organisations),. com (companies), and .edu (education, like schools or universities).
"However, around a year or two ago, that all went out the window when people started being able to put anything at the end of the address. Now they don't mean much at all."
