Silver Anniversary For Dot Com
It was 25 years ago today that the first .com Internet address was assigned to symbolics.com, a Massachusetts firm. Since then, about 80 million .com Internet addresses have been registered, according to a new report released Monday from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
Despite the crash of the so-called .com companies a decade ago, the number of Internet addresses ending with .com continues to grow by about 668,000 a month, maintaining its dominance as the top Internet address even though the number of generic Internet addresses has grown to 21. The report notes that .coms have accounted for about $400 million in economic benefits to businesses and consumers - a figure that the study's authors predict will double in the next decade.
When the National Science Foundation opened up the Internet, which was still primarily a research tool, in 1985 to commercial businesses, "little did they know ... they were creating one of the biggest technical revolutions in world history," ITIF President Robert Atkinson said at news conference.
To help sustain the e-commerce growth, the report recommends adoption of policies that enable the deployment of new technologies such as wired and wireless broadband, mobile payment platforms and health information technology. It also calls on policymakers to remove regulatory and legal barriers that hamper new e-business models; create incentives for companies to invest in Internet-related business practices; and advance polices to promote digital literacy.
VeriSign, the firm that administers the database of all the .com Internet addresses, is holding a policy forum Tuesday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of .com featuring a keynote address from former President Bill Clinton.
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