'Dot Com' Domain Celebrates 25th Birthday

Monday marks the 25th anniversary of the .com domain, according to VeriSign.

On March 15, 1985, Symbolics.com was the first domain to register via a ".com" address. Though it took another decade for .com to really catch on, there are now 80 million .com Web sites, including 11.9 million e-commerce and online business sites, 1.8 million sports-related sites, and 4.3 million entertainment Web sites.

The most popular words to use in domain names are home (1.2 million), online (1 million), and land (891,000), VeriSign said.

"For anyone under the age of 30, they probably don't remember when the Internet wasn't in their life. It's become such an essential part of how we work, live and play," Mark McLaughlin, chief executive and president of VeriSign, said in a statement. "The 25th anniversary of .com gives us a moment to step back and realize how deeply the Internet revolution has transformed our society."

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