Most people surf the net, a bit of facebook, some work and a catchup on BBC ’s iPlayer, but does anyone ever wonder where everything has come from? Who registered the first website on the net? What was the first domain on the internet? All will be answered……

The website is beyond enourmous with over 142 billion pages online, over 6 billion terabytes of data, and 250 million servers, its no wonder our world is moving into the next age of technology.

But it must have all sprung from somewhere?

Well, the .COM boom really got going in the early 1990’s with companies jumping to get a domain around their company name, or extension. With the .COM came the introduction of worldwide domain extensions, the first group of domain extensions included .NET, .ORG, .WEB, .CO.UK which was handled by both Aren and Ripe. Following behind were worldwide domain extensions, which saw domains such as .FR, .DE, .IT, .ES introduced for the country assignment.

But, even before the .COM boom, what domains were to go first?

Believe it or not, the oldest domain is only 30 days away from its 25th Aniversary, making it the oldest registered domain on the internet at 25 years old (March 2010).

On the 15th March 1985 Symbolics.com was registered, making it the first website on the public net to be available. Websites were registered before this date, however, they were not on a public network.

So, lets look at the oldest domains on the internet, ranging from 1985 onwards, and yes, its funny to think you could have purchased these domains, only to have been offered hundreds of thousands of pounds for them at a later date.

Imagine having purchased download.com, adobe.com, fox.com, business.com and many others, to this date those domains could have netted you a hansom sum.

Anyway, enough with the ramblings, here are the oldest domains on the net: