14 DAY TRIAL // Missouri-based Internet investment company XF.com Investmens has announced that it has recently acquired the first-ever domain name registered on a DNS server. XF.com Investmens, an Internet real-estate company (as it likes to call itself), bought from Symbolics Inc. for an undisclosed sum the ownership rights over the domain name symbolics.com.
Even if it's not the actual first domain, symbolics.com is really the first-ever domain name registered through a DNS service. The domain name that was really created first was nordu.net, but this was actually the first root server of the Internet, and obviously needed a name. And, since root servers can't change their name or sell their domain, symbolics.com is actually the first-ever commercial domain name registered on the Internet.
Back on March 15th, 1985, a small IT company that specialized in LISP machines and single-user computers that ran LISP, Symbolics Inc., saw the potential of the NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network), a network commissioned by the US National Science Foundation, to connect several universities on a 56 kb/s communication line.
In the first wave of registrations, beside Symbolics Inc., only five other companies thought it would be a good idea to reserve their name in advance: bbn.com, think.com, mcc.com, dec.com and northrop.com
From that batch, almost all the other domain names have been sold several times, only symbolics still remaining with its original owner. But, since the company's slow demise that started at the end of the 80's, the Massachusetts-based computer manufacturer was forced to sell its prize possession. Read about Symbolic's demise in this blog post by former employee Dan Weinreb.
Meanwhile, XF.com Investments takes a real pride in its latest acquisition, as Aron Meystedt, company CEO, says, “We are extremely excited to own the Symbolics.com domain name […] Since our core business is Internet investments, we really pursued the purchase of the original domain name, Symbolics.com. For us to own the first domain is very special to our company, and we feel blessed for having the ability to obtain this unique property.”
XF.com will be celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, and plans to re-launch the symbolics.com domain as the birth place of the Internet. And why not? It actually is.