25 Years Of .Com – This .Net Is Older….

Lets not let the facts get in the way of a good story about the Internet. While symbolics.com might be the oldest currently registered dot com, its not the oldest currently registered domain.

As I pointed out years ago, nordu.net has a creation date of 01-jan-1985.

For those that don’t know, nordu.net is used by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as their research and academic backbone. The interesting thing about this domain is that it was registered before you could actually register domains, which officially began on 15 Jan 1985 as per RFC921.

For those Americans reading this; sorry guys, the Europeans beat you to it.

Now lets get back to celebrating how great Verisign is and their price rise to $7.34 in July 2010.

VeriSign Increases Domain Name Fees In 2010

The thieves at Verisign announced today that effective July 1, 2010 there will be an increase in domain name fees for .com and .net.

The registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $6.86 to $7.34 and the registry fee for .net domain names will increase, from $4.23 to $4.65.

In a release to the market today, the organisation appeared to justify the increase saying:

“Over the last decade, the volume of Internet traffic and domain name system (DNS) queries on VeriSign’s global infrastructure has increased from an average of approximately 2 billion queries per day in the year 2000 to more than 50 billion queries per day today..”

To save you some maths, the industry is looking at a .com increase of 48 cents and .net increase of 42 cents. Happy New Year!

White House Dinner Party Crashers Miss Out On Domain Name

Tareq Salahi appears to have missed out on the domain name TareqSalahi.com after it was registered on November 26 to an individual in Palm Beach Florida.

It appears that Tareq registered michaelesalahi.com on June 15, but forgot to register his own name!

He and his wife Michaele gained national attention in November 2009 by allegedly crashing a White House state dinner in honor of India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Michaele Salahi has been filmed as one of the housewives for Bravo’s upcoming The Real Housewives of DC, and sources say cameramen for the show filmed their preparations for the dinner and followed the couple to the White House.

Russia Adds Domain Name To Olympic Emblem

This is the first time a domain name has been part of an Olympic host city’s emblem.

The word “sochi.ru” appears above the number “2014″ in an apparent reflection, symbolizing the southern city’s water-based location on the Black Sea.

“It’s very appealing. It’s very creative, innovative,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said at Tuesday’s unveiling. “I think it will appeal especially to the young population.”

It’s been reported that the IOC president then asked someone what a “domain name” was.

For those that believe there could be an opportunity – the .com, .net and .org is taken… as is the .ru.

3,459 Michael Jackson .COM Domains Registered

Where do you draw the line between registering a domain name to mourn or honor an individual, vs profit from their death?

Since MJ died, there have been 3,459 .com domain names registered with the word “michael” in them. Don’t believe me? Well, here is the list I compiled (please give me credit if you use it) and a few extracts of interest:

• michaelisstillalive.com
• michaeljackson-conspiracy.com
• michaeljackson911tape.com
• michaeljacksonautopsy.com
• michaeljacksonconcertrefund.com
• michaeljacksonisfaking.com
• michaeljacksontributetour.com
• michaeljacksonwasmurdered.com
• whopoisonedmichaeljackson.com

In light of this registration frenzy, I’d ask the media, not to “tar and feather” the entire domain name industry with the actions of a few people who lack morals / ethics in this area.

Having said that, newspapers, TV and other sources “profit” from this as well. What do you think? Have you registered a MJ domain?

Bricks & Mortar – Interesting Use Of .Com

I was driving in Richmond today and noticed this massive domain name plastered on the side of the building. What a great use of a domain name! Look how big this thing is compared to a car – you can see it for miles away.

Being the domainer, I had to park and take a photo. The strange thing is, their website doesn’t even have a picture of the building. You’d think you were almost dealing with an online mailorder company.

At the top of the site is this quote – “When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So let’s all get drunk and go to heaven!” – Brian O’Rourke.

Maybe they got the idea to make those HUGE letters over a few bottles of red wine?